Day 12
John had a rough night, throwing up twice, but he has shown signs of improvement as the day progressed. When the drugs wear off and he wakes, he is alert and wanting to do things. That has been about half the time today.
John's "numbers" are starting to come up and the doctors say that he is showing signs that the transplanted stem cells are engrafting. They track four types of measures daily:
White Blood Count (WBC): a measure of the number of white cells in the blood. These go down to near zero as the chemotherapy takes effect and should move back up toward a range of 4 to 10. He was at 3.78 when he entered the hospital, dropped to .08 on Day 6 and has risen to .95 for the past two days.
Hematocrit (HCT): the percentage of red cells in the blood. These need to be between 38 and 50. John has ranged fro 28 when he went in the hospital to a low of 25 on Day 6 and is now back up to 30 without having had any transfusions since that low point, which seems to mean that he may be starting to make blood cells again.
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC): This is a subset of the white count that measures the types of blood cells that are most important in disease fighting and the ones that became cancerous before. John's numbers never returned to normal after his second chemo in January. He needs to be around 7.5 and entered the hospital at 3.33. On Days 7, 8 and 9, he was at 0. Today he was at .29, which is a good sign.
Platelets (PLTS): These are the cells that cause the blood to clot. They tend to be slow to come back and need to get to between 150 and 400. John entered the hospital at 55, dropped to 6 on Day 5, came back up with the help of transfusions around Days 8 and 10 and is now at 44.
They also measure liver functions to watch for organ damage. Those numbers have been steady and moderate. He also shows no signs of damage to any other organs at this point.
We are all looking forward to the next few days.
John's "numbers" are starting to come up and the doctors say that he is showing signs that the transplanted stem cells are engrafting. They track four types of measures daily:
White Blood Count (WBC): a measure of the number of white cells in the blood. These go down to near zero as the chemotherapy takes effect and should move back up toward a range of 4 to 10. He was at 3.78 when he entered the hospital, dropped to .08 on Day 6 and has risen to .95 for the past two days.
Hematocrit (HCT): the percentage of red cells in the blood. These need to be between 38 and 50. John has ranged fro 28 when he went in the hospital to a low of 25 on Day 6 and is now back up to 30 without having had any transfusions since that low point, which seems to mean that he may be starting to make blood cells again.
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC): This is a subset of the white count that measures the types of blood cells that are most important in disease fighting and the ones that became cancerous before. John's numbers never returned to normal after his second chemo in January. He needs to be around 7.5 and entered the hospital at 3.33. On Days 7, 8 and 9, he was at 0. Today he was at .29, which is a good sign.
Platelets (PLTS): These are the cells that cause the blood to clot. They tend to be slow to come back and need to get to between 150 and 400. John entered the hospital at 55, dropped to 6 on Day 5, came back up with the help of transfusions around Days 8 and 10 and is now at 44.
They also measure liver functions to watch for organ damage. Those numbers have been steady and moderate. He also shows no signs of damage to any other organs at this point.
We are all looking forward to the next few days.
