WHEW! Today's visit went very well, Johnny's ANC is 1350, his hemoglobin was 11.5, and his platelets were 112. His platelets keep going down, but it's nothing to worry about, I asked what it means, and our doctor said it could be anything, the virus, the chemo, anything -- but nothing to worry about.
He is still not feeling great, I had him cough (it still sounds yucky) for the doctors, and they checked his ear -- both seem to be clearing up. Not looking great, but definitely not what he was on Friday. I swear he dropped 5 pounds, but after he was weighed, it was only about a pound and a half. When I told Mike, it was even hard for him to believe too. I think that the reason he isn't feeling great is he's not eating or drinking like he should, it's hard on ANYONE to have a virus, then to have chemo on top of that, and then to not eat or drink. Dr. Muscal suggested that he drink some Boost, you get a lot of "bang for your buck", even if he had 1/2 a can, it could do him some good.
As she was asking him how he was feeling, he was just laying down nodding his head. I told her that he mentioned his legs felt weird from the vincristine, and she asked him "how do you know they feel weird, does it hurt, or tingle?", and his reply was "they are just weak, I can't do an Ollie". Then I had to explain what an Ollie was... I know once he gets some food in him, he will regain his strength. We are going to Galveston this weekend, and I can tell he is starting to gear up for that. I often wondered about the past 3 weeks if we lived in Galveston, would he have acted differently. Not that is he 'acting', just if he saw a gang of kids outside his window every day, would he have gotten dressed on a daily basis, or even tried to skate. I guess we will find out this summer how things will be....
We still have to go back next week to check counts to see if he can get up to 100% dosage on his daily chemo. His ANC is probably high right now due to a week of steroids, so it could be a "false" reading. Once we go back next Wednesday, we will know more.
He and Dr. Muscal talked "fashion" (I use that word loosely). Each week she has to check his "privates" for swelling because the testicles are a sanctuary for leukemia. During our last trip to CA, Johnny bought what he calls his "skinny jeans", made by this skate company called Krew, I may have mentioned them before -- but Johnny LOVES them -- and they are VERY hard to find in his size. For his birthday we bought him two more pair, I had to order them over the internet, and they just came yesterday. The reason Dr. Muscal was so interested in his jeans was that the ones we bought in CA have a button fly, and he can never do them on his own, let alone with an IV in his hand, and it's even harder for the doctors to figure them out. One pair of his new jeans has button fly, the other pair has a zipper. When he saw the pair with the zippers his eyes lit up and he had this big smile that went from ear to ear. Anyway, today he wore his new jeans, and Dr. Muscal commented on them as well as him wearing the ones with the buttons -- NOT the zippers.
They get along really well, I think she is his favorite doctor, he even mentioned it to me a long time ago -- I like her too, she always is very thoughtful, patient (with me), and thinks of everything we need to talk about. The best part is, it never seems like she's in a hurry -- which I LOVE!
This weekend we are going to start to move some stuff to the beach house, I will update more on Monday! Have a great weekend!
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