The Waiting Game

I went to the cancer agency at 9:30 AM to start my second cycle of chemo but the nurse told me my blood work from yesterday showed that my neutrophils were too low to proceed. They won't give you chemo if your neutrophil count is below 1.0, and mine were at 0.65. This happened last time too.

Anyways, they sent me across to the hospital lab for another blood test to see if my counts had come up at all since yesterday. I waited more than an hour to get it done. In that hour, they got through nine people before me. Oh wait... it wasn't even nine people, because a few numbers they called weren't even there! Seriously! A blood test takes two minutes!

Then Kaitlin and I had to wait another hour for the results.

At 1:00 PM a nurse came by and told me that my counts were actually even lower today than yesterday, so I would have to wait a week to start this cycle.  It was really frustrating to hear that, because my entire "regular" schedule (i.e. the rest of my life) is based around when I have chemo.

So now the plan is to go for another blood test next Sunday, and then start my second cycle of chemo on Monday. Then as soon as it's done, Kaitlin will drive me to the ferry, and my parents will pick me up on the other side. I'll spend the night at their place in Langley, and on Tuesday we'll go into Vancouver to meet the stem cell doctor for the first time.

Mom said "You're taking the ferry right after you get chemo? Make sure you bring a barf bucket!"

Thanks mom.

The only good thing from all this is that... well... now I have another week of feeling alright until I have to do chemo again. Even though my neutrophils are ridiculously low and I have no defence against infection (so I probably shouldn't go out in public) I still think I might get out and have some fun! ;)

Here is a hilarious squirrel photo I snapped yesterday. It's entitled "LOOK AT MY NUTS"

Thanks for reading!

Christopher