Down the Rabbit Hole

September 15, 2008

Erin received all the virtual patient greeting you would have sent today IF St. Joseph's Hospital had patient greetings and IF you had known that Erin would have to check in (temporarily) to have a platelet transfusion. Thanks!

We are home now.

I have to say, the whole sequence of events surprised me. Yesterday, we stuck close to home (no church) because I felt like Erin's white counts were headed down, and I didn't want to chance a hug with someone who was coming down with something. She was tireder than she was on Saturday, so I thought her hemoglobin might be on the wane as well. I had seen no sign that she was at risk for bleeding and assumed the platelets trough would follow some time after the other two had started to recover.

That's why they pay me to teach management not medicine. When Walter took Erin in to the pediatrician to get counts done this morning, Erin was at the bottom of the barrel of ANC. Her hemoglobin was virtually the same as it was when we left the hospital last Wednesday, and her platelets (usually the most robust of all of her blood numbers and solidly normal last time we checked them) had dropped to 10,000 (normal is 150,000 and above). Hence the transfusion. Of course, those sorts of things only go smoothly and quickly on television shows that have 44 minutes to resolve all the plot lines. This afternoon felt a whole lot more like Alice trying to figure out how to get back out of the rabbit hole she fell down, but as I said before,

We are home now.

I suspect (does this actually translate as "I blindly hope" in whatever language you speak?) we have seen the worst of this round of chemo. Since we are finishing up day 12, I suspect her ANC will head up quickly (stimulated by the neulasta shot she had last Thursday). Hemoglobin seems to have stabilized already, and the platelets ought to appreciate today's boost. We'll probably stick pretty close to home tomorrow, and make decisions after that based on what she feels like doing (maybe I'll say no to kick boxing, but I'll definitely consider other activities).