Tuesday, May 24, 2011

My Follow-up Medical Appointment

Today, I went back for my appointment. Dr Flam is out of town so I saw his assistant, Marina.
I had labs done as per the routine. Today, I was fasting as I wanted to document a normal blood sugar fasting. The last was 176, and fasting, it was 110. This is an indication that I am not diabetic. Hemoglobin is 11.6, up from 11.2 two weeks ago, platelets normal at 162,000. The interesting result is that my white count is 20.8 thousand. This is elevated and raises the possibility of a significant infection. However, an internet search suggests that this is result of the injection of Neulasta.
I do not have symptoms of infection apart from mild sore throat and gum tenderness.
My constipation has passed, so to speak, after stopping Zofram, and there is no nausea. My mouth is dry. Taste is diminished. We went to the salad bar last night for dinner. Most evident is the loss of the ability to taste sweetness. The tapioca pudding, a favorite of mine tasted like they forgot to put the sugar in it.
The mental fog and fatigue have disappeared. 
My hair is still there. Perhaps I got the buzz cut prematurely. Hair growth has slowed, and I need to shave only every 3-4 days.
I plan to return to the bridge club to play Friday afternoon.
We are invited to a wedding on Saturday and we plan to go. The bride is our son Gary's first wife, Margaret, (Eva's Mom). They are all on good terms. I would like to see a survey of what percentage of people are invited to their ex daughter-in-law's wedding. I would guess not more than 15%. We were happy to be included.
Eva will be a junior bridesmaid, and I hope to grab a few photos for the blog.
Our very good friend, Andrea, sent me an email about playing the "Cancer Card". She is a miraculous 20 year survivor of breast cancer for which she was given only a short time to live.
"One day, when I was still in the middle of pretty heavy chemo, we decided to go to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. The place was mobbed and people were all but hanging from the chandeliers. In horror, I mentioned to the hostess that we better not stay because I was so fatigued from all the chemo and couldn't  sit up long enough to both wait to be seated and eat dinner. She assured me that there would be no problem,  and =Bingo!=we were the next ones  seated. Hmmm, I thought to myself. Magic. This isn't all bad."
I don't plan on playing the card routinely, but will keep it in mind as my "ace in the hole".

2 comments:

  1. david.
    thank you for this devoted dedicated and thorough in spirit and fact blog.
    your grateful fellow on this journey.

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  2. David, I've been reading your blog since I received a link from the Merkel Cell site. Really interested in how your experience with chemo differs from mine, but it sounds like yours were packed into just a few weeks, whereas mine comprises 3 consecutive days followed by 2 weeks of just blood monitoring - thus each cycle is 3 weeks long and I've done 4 cycles so far with 2 cycles remaining (Cycle 5 begins 6/28). Worst side effect is constipation with some amelioration if I start taking laxatives before the symptoms appear. I'm scared because the more I learn about this, the more I'm convinced that I should have undergone radiation first.
    s/georgemurraymerkel@gmail.com

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