ANC in the 250's

The lab results from Saturday came back just after I posted. The main news from them is Emily's ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) is 258. That's very low and what we expected to happen in Phase 2 of Chemo. To put some perspective her ANC 2 weeks ago was 2600, then last week 1100, and then down to 258. Normal is anything above 1500 per micro-liter. ANC levels determine your bodies ability to fight infection. That's why the doctor warned us about the possibility of hospitalization. So far Emily has not come down with a fever. She is due to get labs tomorrow which will determine if we can give another dose of Chemo this Wednesday.

How is Emily doing? You wouldn't know by looking at her that she is Neotropenic and Anemic. She is acting a lot like the Emily Tracy and I remember. In fact I even caught myself saying, "Emiy, please don't climb in the couch, the family room is not a play ground." She also had a two hour play date this weekend and didn't want it to end. There are times where I am finding myself "forgetting" she has cancer, which is great. I know she's going to have her ups and downs, this has been a nice stretch of "up" which I wish could just last for the two remaining years. I'm really hoping it lasts through next weekend, which is Mother's Day. Emily and I have been preparing some fun and I hope she is well enough for us to execute our plan.

We have been asked what is Tracy doing about work? Originally she took a 3 month leave. We are already 2 months through that. We realize that she needs to be here pretty much all the time since we can't guess how Emily is going to be feeling, plus summer vacation is almost here and Emily will need someone with her daily. To that, we are trying to figure how to do it. We can make it, just not the lifestyle we are used to, not a big deal. Tracy is also going to look into working 2 days a month to keep her nursing skills up.

My next post will be after we get the lab results tomorrow, which will dictate the game plan for the next couple weeks.