Life & Website Updates!

Life Updates

I'm afraid I don't have anything as exciting to report as my last update, but that is actually a good thing! My blood counts have remained more stable over the last week and a half, which means a long stretch without getting blood or platelet transfusions and overall, feeling better and much more like myself. Some little annoying issues linger, but since my blood counts are still not in a typical, normal range, my body still isn't healing itself very well.

Yesterday (Thursday, June 4), I had another oncology appointment. I met with Courtney, an APN whom I met with a few weeks ago. She was very happy to see that I was doing so much better in all ways than when she initially met me. I was thankful for the consistency of seeing her again rather than a different, new APN (my doctor was doing hospital rounds).

My doctor wanted me to begin a shorter round of chemo yesterday if my blood counts were sufficient. All of my counts were high enough except for my platelets, which were 11. (A normal, healthy platelet count is 150 - 400.) I was unaware that my platelet count needed to be 75+ to begin chemo...so chemo has been postponed for now. Instead, I received two units of blood and one unit of platelets today (Friday), which is a lot easier on me than chemo!

So what does delaying chemo mean? Well, it means that there would be less time between the end of the chemo round and the beginning of the transplant process. I would have to be given several units of platelets in order for my level to reach 75, which would be a several day process. (Shout out to the lovely nurses on the Infusion floor who know exactly what I'm talking about!) I am under the impression that my doctor would like me to have a chance to recover from the chemo as best I can before going to

Chicago (and I would like that, too), so now I wait until Monday, get my blood drawn again, and see where the number lands (I assure you it won't be close to 75!). My transplant doctor has also been consulted, so hopefully his verdict on whether or not he thinks I should even have a third round will arrive early next week.

As for the transplant, things are moving forward quickly and well. Ed and I will go to Chicago together at the end of June for preliminary appointments. I am scheduled to be admitted to Northwestern on Tuesday, July 7th, which means the actual transplant would happen about a week later if all goes as planned. I am thankful I have been feeling so well because I have been taking care of preparations for my time in Chicago as well as getting personal business and life things in the right places to be away for a couple of months.

Thank you to those who continue to send messages, cards, and prayers. I read every message, every card, and feel everyone holding me up during this time. With the approaching transplant, I am feeling much more optimistic and determined to get myself to the "other side" of this - to the recovery and back to "normal" life!

Website Updates

I have made a couple of changes to this website...first, I did not realize that my readers could not leave a comment on a particular update post without "signing up" for my website. I changed the commenting setting (which I just discovered!) and now, you should be able to leave a comment without hassle.

Second, and thanks to reader feedback, you can now sign up to receive an email alert every time I post a new update. This new feature has had a rocky start - it has been tricky on my end to get the alert emails to be sent.

A technical note: This website can only send out 500 update alert emails per month per the website plan I have purchased, rolling over on the 5th of each month. If a lot of readers sign up for the update alerts (and by all means, do so if you want!), and I post a lot of updates in one month (likely July), then the alerts might "run out" as we near the 5th of the month - so you may need to "manually" check the website for updates if that's the case. I'm sure there will be other limitations I haven't realized yet, so I'll keep you all in the loop if that happens.

This post was originally published on Friday, June 5th, and it was revised / re-published on Sunday, June 7th. As a result, some subscribers may have received multiple alerts for this post.