We went back to the doctor’s office and they sucked more blood out of Donna’s arm. The white blood count was down some more, to 3.5 thousand cells/mcl. This is both good and bad. Good because that means the chemo is doing its job of killing fast growing cells, but bad because the white blood cells protect you from infection. Also her total blood count was down as well.
Before we left the office Donna was given a shot of Nupogen to start bringing up the white blood cells. We also got a couple of syringes of the stuff so that our plant nurse can give her a shot on Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Thursday we return to the doctor’s office or another blood test to see how the stuff is working.
Today’s wait was about 25 minutes which is not to bad in the scheme of things. While the doctor was talking about white blood counts he said something to the effect, “That is why I want to see someone one week after the first chemo session.” So whose miscommunication caused last Friday’s snafu? His to his staff? The staff to us? You can bet we are going to ask more questions when they set up the next set of appointments after chemo session #2.