No hospital 'till Tuesday

Dear Chemo 13:

I am feeling somewhat verbose today and really have to avoid the compelling, er ah, poop – I am having a chemo brain attack and lost my train of though. Darn!

In case you guys hadn’t noticed there are often typos in these notes because I am generally lazy – only kidding. I try to catch the errors but I suffer from the same thing all of you do; we are each are own worst editor.

Anyway to the news:

In a stunning surprise Bill Potter was sent home Thursday from the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center after his blood work revealed his platelet count was still too low to be admitted to the cancer ward on 6B of Christiana hospital.

“It’s kind of a drag,” said Bill. “I was originally supposed to start block four on Monday, but the numbers just weren’t there. The good news is I get to spend the weekend with my wife and smooch her.”

Officials from the Cancer Center said Bill would have to come back Tuesday July 26 and he would most likely be admitted then if the platelet number were over 100.

“He is at 84 right now,” said hospital bigwig Sally Smackety Smack. “For his own safety it has to be at that 100 level. Once he’s there, it’s off to chemo treatment.”

Though not a doctor himself, Bill often does research to assist with other patients. This time he did some detailed research about his block of chemo and the drugs used.

“The platelet situation is really a big deal for this block of chemo because the treatment uses a drug called Methatrexate,” Bill said. “Methatrexate is a bad whammer-jammer. It attacks just about every fast dividing cell in your body and seems to have a special appetite for platelets and red blood cells.

“The thing is, methtrexate will make me anemic and susceptible to spontaneous bleeding and bruising. The last time I had this block of chemo I ended up getting blood and platelet transfusions. It’s all pretty scary for most people, but not me; Okay I cried like a baby.”

The delay puts Bill a full week behind on his aggressive chemo plan.

“I had this stuff planned out to the day on a spreadsheet and everything. I hate it when timetables get deviations. It makes me cranky.”

The other thing making him crazier – as if that were possible – is there is no dietary way to increase platelet production or augment red blood cell production.

“I thought eating a few steaks could have an impact, but that’s not how it works. Any impact via diet is so insignificant as to be barely measurable, so I have switched to jelly donuts,” Bill said. “What the heck a rare steak is red in the middle, so is a jelly donuts …. it’s a no brainer.”