Delayed

Roberts Chemo was a no go yesterday. They checked his blood counts and the granulocytes (part of his white blood cells) were really low. Last week when they were checked they were at 1.5 and yesterday they were at 0.3. The doctor said that if they were to do the Chemo treatment as scheduled it would wipe his immunity out an he would probably end up in the hospital. So they postponed it until his granulocyte counts come back up. He got a shot yesterday called Neupogen which will stimulate the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. He got the same shot again today and he will get another tomorrow and Sunday. Then on Monday morning they will be checking his blood counts again to see if they have gone up. If they have gone up they will go ahead with the Chemo treatment. If they are not up he will have to keep going in to get checked until they are. Because the counts were so low after just the first treatment from now on they are going to give him a "booster" shot called Neulasta which will have the same effect as the (Neupogen) shot just over a longer period of time. Hopefully if they do that this wont keep happening. The side effects of Nupogen/Neulasta are that they could cause bone pain...which makes sense since it is stimulating the bone marrow.

Yesterday out of the blue Robert noticed all of these sores starting to appear in his mouth. So bad that his lips were swollen. The nurse said that this is common with people undergoing Chemotherapy. He was given 2 prescriptions for the sores a pill form which he supposed to take until the end of all his treatments and a "magic" mouth wash which kinda numbs the mouth so he can eat. Oh! and we noticed yesterday that his hair is falling out...chunks come out when you pull on it :( bummer!....Oh well it will grow back :)

Since his immunity is so poor right now Robert was instructed to stay home and stay away from lots of people. They gave him an antibiotic just to be safe, but he is not supposed to go out much until those counts come back up. He says he is feeling better today but he seems a little bummed about being home bound. I'm not too worried about him though, I know secretly he likes staying home and playing video games.☺ Plus it gives me a lot of time to study. I guess we will just have to suck it up and be hermits for a few days.

Sorry it has taken some time to update everyone, sometimes I lack motivation to write.. so bare with me.. I will post as often as I can. ☺


♥Crystal