And Then I Got Cancer

I was wrong about the Filgrastim. I thought, and I think the Medicine team thought, that I was getting Filgrastim to prevent me from becoming too neutropenic. But the intention was really the opposite. The chemo kills cells when they're dividing. Filgrastim makes cells divide faster, increasing the odds that the chemo will work on them. So hopefully more of the leukemia cells will die off. But more of the Sarah cells will also die off. The strategy seems to be working, because my WBC is dropping fast. I came in with a WBC of about 4, which is normal. After one shot of Filgrastim, it jumped up to 19. Yesterday, after four days of chemo, it was down to 1.6. And today I'm at 0.1. I started feeling pretty crappy early on this round. By Wednesday evening I had no appetite. Mom and Dad and David went out to dinner and brought me back some soup and pie. I could tell it was good, but I could only take a few bites. Yesterday I didn't feel like going on my usual morning walk. I

It almost feels like I never left. After a week at UC Health, and a glorious ten days at home, I'm back at the VA for take three of chemo. I'm at the point where I feel almost recovered from the last two rounds. I can walk at a fairly normal pace, I can climb stairs without feeling (abnormally) out of breath, and my guts aren't constantly in a twist. I even had a beer with coworkers on Friday. It was really nice to see everyone, and I was pretty much my old self. So it seems a shame to put more poison in my body and fall back into the sick zone. I know in about a week I'll be feeling pretty shitty, so I don't know what kind of Halloween costume I'll be able to pull off. Any suggestions? This round of chemo is called GCLAM: three days of Mitoxantrone, and five days of Cytarabine and Cladribine. I also get shots of Filgrastim to stimulate my bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. Hopefully this will help lessen the blow of the other drugs, my cell count