Not a Great Start to the Weekend

We had blood tests and saw the oncologist on Friday morning. Just about everything was out of the normal range. White blood cells, red blood cells, protien, hemoglobin levels were all low. The hypo-thyroidism has gotten progressively worse with each test, in spite of doubling the medication. All of this explains why Linda has gotten progressively more and more tired with each passing day. Platelets, which are needed for clotting, were very low. There's also something called Ablumin that was low, and as a result fluid was leaking out of her circulatory system and residing in her fat cells, not that Linda has a lot of those to begin with. He said all of her recent weight gain was all fluid. And since the fluid wasn't where is was supposed to be, she was actually getting dehydrated.

So you get the picture. While the Sutent continues to keep the cancer in check, the side effects are getting harder and harder to deal with. (The low platelet count is what sent us to the ER in December after the nose bleed wouldn't stop.) Dr. Bhandari said we would have to stop the Sutent for a week or two, primarily because of the low platelet count. That was ok with us--- we were going to suggest it if he didn't. There were a couple of things he was able to do in the treatment center--Hemocrit shot, Saline IV for the dehydration and an Alblumin infusion. Since it was going to take two more hours for the IV, I called Don & Carole to pick Linda up, and I left for work. That turned out to be a bad idea, because on the way out of the treatment center that afternoon, the fatigue finally caught up with her --Linda's knees buckled and she went down in a heap. Catherine, the nurse who was with her actually got underneath Linda and broke her fall. Nevertheless, they didn't want to take any chances, so it was off to the emergency room again. To make a long story somewhat shorter, I got the message at work and caught up with Linda, Don and Carole in the ER. They had been waiting for almost an hour, and Linda was already feeling better (not great, but better.) When we finally saw the ER physician, he checked her for broken bones and sent us home. We left the house that morning at 8:45 for a doctor's visit, and got home at 6:30 that night.

Linda has spent the day trying to catch up on all the rest she missed yesterday. That hasn't exactly been easy, because she's had to deal with another bloody nose, which showed up right on cue. We hope we don't end up in the ER again tonight.

More to come from Linda as soon as she's feeling better.