I saw the doctor today and my numbers are great!
WBC 6.8, Neut 5.3, RBC 4.57, HGB 14.8, PLT 119
So everything is normal with platelets still a little low but not lower than last week and still pretty close to normal. Which is great because all my numbers were low back in March when I was diagnosed.
Doctor thinks we’ll schedule my follow up biopsy and CT scan for August. So I’ll post again once I get results from those.
I will be drawing blood for the NIH in July as well. There’s a group of doctors studying Hairy Cell and I’ve volunteered to be part of the study. Though I didn’t get them my blood before treatment, they’re still interested in tracking my health. And fortunately they’re pretty good at answering questions when I’ve emailed them. So it’s good to have some experts on my cancer that I can reach out to. I also joined the hairy cell patient registry at Ohio State University. I’ll be an anonymous participant for them but they’ll keep track of my records and treatments and progress as well.
I’m looking forward to really feeling good again. I think I’m only a matter of weeks or days away from feeling like new. The meds I’ve been taking these last several weeks have done a number on me—my digestion has been a mess, I’ve been super anxious, and of course my energy has been zapped. I’ve gained some weight and feel like I have aged —more gray hairs and wrinkles on my face. So I’m looking forward to hitting the gym and feeling like my old self.
I also have been told that I’m more susceptible to other cancers so I need to be careful about second hand smoke and sun protection. And when I asked about other cancer prevention the doctor suggested I limit eating sushi and processed foods and to avoid burnt foods, particularly burnt meat.
All of this to say, this of course hasn’t been an easy few months, and it’s not completely over for me. But I can’t say this enough, it could have been way worse and I have so much to be grateful for. I’ve been so very loved during all of this. Thank you again for caring.
