New Treatment Today

Good morning my Chemo 13 Brothers and Sisters (sounds almost like the beginning of an epistle from church):

Either today or tomorrow I have to undergo a new treatment and should be a blast. I can’t wait. Not only that I’ll get an upgrade in my biology and chemistry knowledge.

Apparently my body has chosen not to make the right antibodies or make the right amount of antibodies – hence this nonstop cough that has plagued me for months. I found out yesterday that I have to go and get an intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) treatment. This URL from a San Francisco TV station is a pretty good article about it all (http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=5749369),

Anyway it’s supposed to take about five hours to administer the stuff. It’s supposed to work wonders in lot of areas including neuropathy (my toes are a tingling over that). Anyway, once this is done I should feel pretty good either immediately, or in week, or somewhere in between.

I always forget that part of this Burkitt’s thing is a corruption of the immune system. I need to find out if that’s a forever thing or temporary thing. I always forget to ask that question.

The goal for this whole thing is to stop this cough that is wracking me from head to toe and may be creating a lung irritation that has shown up on my lung as a questionable lymph node.

What I don’t know and don’t understand – from a biology and chemistry perspective – is what role White Blood Cells (WBC) and Absolute Nuetrofill Count (ANC) has in all this. You see my WBC count is excellent and my ANC numbers are good. IN case you’ve forgotten, neutrofill is the infection fighters your body is constantly making and these little terrors are always spoiling for a fight. I mentioned them in a September blog (http://bllscancer.blogspot.com/2011/09/joe-pesci-in-all-of-us.html).

The constant coughing has also caused the muscles around my bowel section scar to be terribly painful. I guess I better tell somebody with a lab coat about that.

I guess that’s it for now. Talk to you guys later.

This sure doesn’t’ feel like a recovery.

Peace,

Bill