A Little Setback

While Mom has been sailing through her treatments, relatively speaking, a bit of 'real' life...

On Sunday, Mom had a bit of a fever. Because of the depleted white blood cells, this is important. Her body just doesn't have the strength to fight off any infections. So, she and Joe made the trek to Campbell River Hospital to get checked out. Her white blood cell count was low enough that they decided to keep her there.

After each chemotherapy treatment, your white cell count will begin to fall. It will be at its lowest at the mid-point between treatments. For example, if you have treatment every 3 weeks, then your lowest counts will be at about 10 days after your chemotherapy injections. This is called the 'nadir' (pronounced na-deer). When your white cell count is at its lowest, you will probably feel very tired. Some people also say they feel depressed at this time. After the nadir, the level of white blood cells will gradually improve until it is almost back to normal. Then, it will be time for your next chemotherapy treatment and they will go down again. It is no wonder that many people feel as if they are on a rollercoaster, emotionally as well as physically, when having chemotherapy.

I called the hospital, and they are trying to get her admitted to the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria so she can continue her radiation treatments - I know how important this is to Mom. She wants to keep her cancer-fighting plan, so any change is heartbreaking!

So, for now she's in Campbell River, in a 'reverse isolation' room. That means that anyone who goes into the room must wear a mask and a gown to prevent the risk of any bad germs getting to Mom. She can't take calls, so it really is 'isolated'.

Her esophagus is starting to really bother her (it's so close to where she's being treated with the radiation), so eating is a bit of a chore. There was talk of maybe taking a break from the radiation if it got too bad, so maybe we should look at that as a silver lining...?

I'll keep you all posted as I hear more.