Low Counts Again, Darn It!

We are on our way to Ga to visit with my sisters for a few days. Before we left Hillsborough, I had my blood counts drawn yesterday at the Bone Marrow Clinic. It's been about 6 weeks since my last chemo treatment and 2 weeks since my last lab tests. They were beautiful the last time -so beautiful that they pulled the catheter in my chest and told me that I could eat anything I want, get a flu shot, etc.

But I just got a call from Tanya, the Physician Assistant for Dr Long, telling me that my counts are low again. My white cell count is only 1500 with the absolute neutrophil count at 400. A count lower than 500 is dangerous since these are the cells that fight infection. My hemoglobin and platelets are low too at 11.3 and 128,000 respectively. So it's back to food precautions again-no salad, only cooked vegetables, no playing in the dirt, back to avoiding those with a fever or illness, and off to the hospital for IV antibiotics if I run a fever. Oh bother!

Tanya told me to go on GA trip, but I have to be back in the clinic Monday to have my blood drawn again. She is hoping that the counts will be up by then, and this is just some blip. Only 2 weeks ago my neutrophil count was 2200-more than 5 times what it is now. Darn.
Despite the lab numbers, I feel great. I just finished a 7 mile run around the lake here and included 2 steep hills on my route. Hmmmm, wonder what is going on now???