I Guess the Chemo is Working

Although Interim Maintenance is supposed to be one of the easier phases, the higher dose of the 6-MP has taken its toll on Catherine's blood counts. For the past two weeks, Catherine's White Blood Count, ANC, Platelets and Hemoglobin have been slowly declining. We even had a visit in between treatments to see if she would need a blood transfusion (luckily she did not). As of today, Catherine is neutropenic (for the first time in almost two months!) and we have to stop all oral chemotherapy for one week to give her body a chance to recover. It is assumed that her counts will bounce back and we will pick up where we left off. Of course I was upset, and the doctors have me pegged so they prefaced this news by reminding me that this is exactly what they want to see happen. If her counts never dropped they would increase her dose of chemo. So in a weird way, it is good that her body is reacting this way given that the toxicity of her protocol is so low. On the plus side, they can see that her bone marrow is working overtime to increase her hemoglobin levels, so hopefully that will bode well for next week. Another plus is that for one week, we don't have to deal with crushing pills or eating dinner by a certain time so that she can take her meds. As usual, Catherine is handling this better than me saying that her counts will probably come back up tomorrow (yes, she does talk about her counts). Will let you know how she does next week!