Sunday, June 20, 2010

Chemo 6/ESR check!!!!

"OOOH, I'M HALFWAY THEEEERE!!!!!"   YAY!! Let's celebrate because I'm halfway done with chemo!!!!! 6 down, 6 to go!!

This chemo was the same as usual.. access "Whitney Port", get my blood drawn, premeds, and start the chemo.  It's funny because I've gone 6 times and had 6 different nurses, but each and every one of them were absolutely great!!  It's nice because each time I visit, all of my previous nurses stop by to check my progress.  I look forward to seeing them every week.  Maybe not to take the treatments, but to see my new friends from Chemoland.  My nurse for chemo 6 happened to be Fr. Tim's relative, what a small world!! Then another nurse approached me who was my aunt/uncle/cousin's neighbor! Even smaller world! haha Who knew that Chemoland could be such fun.  It really helps to keep distracted during treatments as it allows the 4 hours to pass more quickly.  Of course, I appreciated my visit from AMANDA again!! woooo thanks for stopping by and celebrating my halfway point with me!!

In addition to my blood count being checked this chemo, my ESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate) was checked as well.  To test ESRs, an extra tube of blood is taken upon pre-chemo blood draw.  ESR levels are used to detect of the existence or nonexistence of cancer/inflammation in the body.  This test is not used for any form of diagnosis, but in my case, can be indirectly used as an indicator of the existence/nonexistence of cancer.   "Normal" results for women <50yo is <20mm/hr.  I will be getting my results during my Dr. Marks appointment this upcoming Wednesday before chemo 7.  Hopefully my ESR will be <20mm/hr, as this would be confirmatory of the "complete resolution" results seen by my last PET/CT.  Let's keep our fingers crossed!!! :)

Also.. great news!! My neutrophils went up to 1.5!  I am sooo close to being out of the red zone on my chart!! (pictured below, click on the chart to see a larger image!)

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