Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Brief medical update

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I do have a new post up at DC Metro Moms about my wonderful, wonderful town. I know many of you are interested in my health and so wanted to give a brief and hopefully not too boring update....

I tried desperately to get my very cool platelet count bar graph in here but can't get it to upload as an image. So here's the poor man's version in text.

Basically a normal person (e.g. you) has a platelet count of 150,000-300,000.

On May 6 my platelet count was less than 4,000 (I believe that is the lowest possible count.) This is freak-out mode; risk of spontaneous bleeding in the brain, etc.

In the hospital on May 8 my count had gotten up to 67,000. Woo hoo! Okay to proceed with surgery for the lymphectomy and bone marrow biopsy.

On May 15 completely pumped up on steroids and other meds: 147,000.

Last Thursday, May 22, for my weekly check-up I was down to 57,000. So disheartening. This means the steroids aren't doing their job. I'm 'roid ragin' for nothing.

So, Friday I went in for the first of four infusions of this medicine called rituximab.

This morning: 72,000. Okay. Up is good.

Friday I'll have my next blood tests and another round of rituximab. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed they will also decrease my dose of steriods. Otherwise I'm going to look into bodybuilding as my new career pursuit.

2 comments:

  1. Found your post on DC Metro Moms (I used to write there) and wanted to come over to wish you well.

    I've had low platelet count before too -- I have a rare disease called Gaucher Disease which impacts the blood and can also affect bones and organs. Doesn't sound like that's what is going on with you, but if it ever does come up (and like I said, it's rare so highly unlikely) feel free to seek me out for more info.

    Hope all this resolves itself quickly!

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  2. Sure do hope they find something soon. When I had ITP I was on steriods for almost a year (slowly decreased the amount after 6 months). Those steroids were not fun.

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