Results From Today's Follow Up Appointment

I had my second follow up appointment today and it went really well. My WBC and RBC levels were almost double what they were on December 26. In fact, my white blood cell count is almost normal. Basically my blood work this morning was perfect, so again I didn't need a blood transfusion or platelets (which made for a shorter visit, which made Brett happy.)

They want me to stay on the vitamin A pills (ATRA medication) that I've been taking for another two weeks, and we scheduled my admission date for Round 2 of chemo for Tuesday, January 27. That will give me a two more weeks at home. For round 2, the chemo meds will only last 5 days and I should be in the hospital a total of 3 to 4 weeks again. We were told with each round of chemo, it's a little harder for the body's immune system to "bounce back". Each round will be shorter (5 days, then 3 days, then 1 day) but the recovery time will be longer each time.

I asked a lot of questions today and learned that in all I have 3 more rounds of chemo. Technically, I am in remission right now, but obviously you don't cure cancer with only one round of chemo. The nurse told me that my last bone marrow biopsy was very good in that there was evidence of bone marrow (meaning my body is making it again after chemo) but no evidence of cancer blasts. That is all very good news.

Thanks for the continued thoughts and prayers! We're still KCA!