Numbers Are Good

I had my bi-weekly checkup yesterday with Dr. Kuan. My white blood cell count and platelets are within normal range. My red blood cell count is a bit low, but still okay, she says. Given that yesterday was the 9th day, she said that if my white blood cell count was going to be low, that would have been the lowest day. Other than that, I'm healing just fine from the surgeries and, assuming my numbers are just as good next week (they test my blood before every chemo infusion), I'm good to go.

I told her that I'd heard that the side effects were "cumulative", inasmuch as your body grows weary of fighting this stuff and the side effects become worse with each infusion. She said that was definitely true of the "numbers" (white blood cell, etc.) but not necessarily true of the nausea. I'm wondering if she's just trying to help me maintain some cautious optimism, because then we started talking about the inherent suggestability of some words/sensations (like nausea).

I told her about the poor ill man at last week's chemo orientation, and she told me about a patient she had when she worked in Houston. He lived outside of Houston and so had to drive in for his treatments. It got to the point where all he had to do was see the sign for Houston as he entered town and he became nauseous. Another patient only had to hear her name and he became nauseous. So, there you go (and there you are). The wonderful world of chemo side effects. :-)