Round Three

Another few hours at the infusion room.

After 28 or so days of reprieve I was subjected to another double round of chemo on June 20th with my two friends: Flubaradine and Rituximab. It went well with the infusion of Rituximab and only took 2 hours this time but I find that the 100 mg of Benadryl along with the extra strength Tylenol are a bit much and leave me very groggy. Why all these extra drugs you might be wondering? Well the Rituximab  which is a monoclonal antibody  is made from a rat or mouse serum and many people have (understandably) an adverse allergic reaction to it. You see our bodies don't like serum from rodents entering them! Lucky for me,  to date it hasn't bothered me. I wonder why? Maybe because I have come in contact with so many rodents in all my years? Just kidding, of course.

On the same topic my pre-chemo blood work indicated that my WBC (white blood cell count) had fallen to an amazing 20.9 and my ALC ( absolute lymphocyte count)  to 17.91!  Those who know something about these markers might think: so what! The normal range for  WBC is 0-10 and ALC is 0-5.  However when I started treatment my ALC and WBC were just shy of 300 each!  So this is pretty incredible news.  As a refresher the disease exists in the B cells which are lymphocytes and generally in the white blood cells. The only negative is that my neutrophils and platelets are also falling. Neutrophils are responsible for defending against infections and platelets work to coagulate blood and prevent bruising. So if they drop much more I am to avoid babies, people with colds, routine dental cleaning and try not to injure myself. These are tall orders given how "normal people" live.

I have had a bit of fatigue and continued brain fog but otherwise I am doing OK. I'll try not to be paranoid about all those precautions and just keep on visualizing all those bad cells being popped off by the amazing drugs. So stop believing  all those posts on social media about how poisonous  chemo is and how it's all a conspiracy of big pharma. These drugs are ingenious and life savers!

So thanks for checking in again and I hope you keep following along the race of my life!