Coming out of Hiding

Okay, I guess I've hidden out long enough. I've been having a lot of abdominal pain and have symbolically crawled into a cave and pulled in a rock after me--at least emotionally. I've been avoiding most social interaction--except with Jack, of course. But I should at least bring you (whoever reads this besides me) up-to-date about my status.

I was supposed to get treatment last Monday, if my platelet count was up to 50, but my prediction about the likelihood of that was correct. Platelets were only 21 on Monday. I was sent home til Thursday when I got my counts rerun--again with the stipulation that I could get treatment if my platelets were up. They were slightly down instead, at 18. My HgB, which had been up to 9 on Monday, had also dropped again to 8.2.

I had also been experiencing increasing pain and swelling in my abdomen. After having Reiki energy work with Ruth and another sound and vibrational healing session at the Cancer Wellness Center, I was feeling somewhat better on Friday morning. If I hadn't been, I would have been hurried in for an obstructive bowel series, which didn't sound like much fun to me. I also had a lymphatic massage from Darek at the Lymphatic Therapy Center on Friday. That seemed to help a lot too.

Some of the help was also due to the fact that I hadn't eaten much solid food from Wed through Friday morning. Since I was feeling so much better, I started eating more, and now feel swollen and achy again. Damn. Well, Lestingi is back on Monday and I can always make my favorite doc-on-call's weekend more exciting if need be. I seem to eat a lot more when I'm at my own apartment than when I'm at Jack's. Not a good trend to follow right now, it seems.

I'm scheduled to go in on Monday to get my blood counts done again, and determine if I'm going to need a platelet or blood transfusion. On Tuesday I have an 8 am appt with Dr L and will likely be getting treatment after that. He wanted to avoid giving me treatment with low blood counts when he was going to be out of town for a week, but now that he's back, he'll probably go ahead and then keep a closer watch on me.

On the plus side, I already have 8 of my 15 students' final grades calculated, with their stuff all graded. Grades are due by noon on Wed, but I hope to have them ready to turn in by Monday or Tuesday morning at the latest. Seems likely that I'll be in treatment Tuesday, one way or another, so I'd like to have that accomplished beforehand.

I dropped Jack off at the airport this morning and he's on his way to California and a trip with his brother to San Diego. I hope they have lots of fun. I should have some fun too, since I'll be back in the predni-Zone maybe on Tuesday... Wish me luck!