Numbers Still In the OK Range - December 3, 2010

10 AM appointment this morning, so most of the rush hour traffic had already gone through but the traffic on the city streets was pretty heavy. No blood return from his port again, but that's nothing new.

The past 2-3 days have not been very good for Pete. He's had headaches and has complained of that "watery mouth" that precedes an attack of nausea, but that's as far as it went. He was hungry, but wasn't in the mood to eat, though he did manage to have a few small, light meals these past few days. And he's really been feeling fatigued.

This morning I mentioned to him that he was looking better. I can't quite put my finger on it; it's a rather subtle difference and I don't know if anyone else would detect it. He did say that he was feeling a bit better today.

Pete's blood work numbers were okay, well, they're okay for someone in the midst of chemo (WBC 4.1, RBC 3.47, both lower than the normal range as expected) but he did have some blood in his urine. The chemo he is currently getting, Ifosfomide, is given along with another drug, Mesna, which helps protect the bladder from the damaging effects of the Ifos. He has to stay hydrated to assist the Mesna in flushing the bad stuff out but sometimes the amount of water he's supposed to drink is tough to get down. The remedy is to give him a bolus of fluid to rehydrate him, so our hoped-for short stay turned into a longer one.

This isn't the first time for the blood in the urine (it was there last Friday as well) but the nurse assured us that it just a trace and nothing to be alarmed about. Last week, they did a second urinalysis after he finished his bag of hydration and it was clear.

By the time we were heading home, the rush hour had begun; traffic was getting heavy. His next appointment is Monday at 10. A had stopped in and we figured out that Thursday will be Day 8, the day the pump will be removed. At least 24 hours after the chemo ends he'll get his Neulasta shot and then 2 weeks later he'll be going for the scans and stress echo cardiogram. Looking at my calendar, that takes us to the week leading up to Christmas. Gina is coming in from CA on Dec 28 and flying back on New Year's Day. Short visit but the airfares were quite high and this particular itinerary was a bargain so she took it.