July 27, 2008

Day 6, Marrow as new as these baby chicks

No fevers yet. The few white blood cells that Katie has left haven't quit yet! And yesterday, Katie got her first Neupagen shot. Neupagen promotes white blood cell growth. She'll be getting one each day until those counts go back up.
And today, her red blood cell count dropped below the magic number... 25% (it's been hovering between 25 and 30 for the past 5 days). So, we'll be off to the hospital for a transfusion of red blood cells. That'll take several hours and then we'll head back to the apartment. Just fyi... the normal range for red blood cells is 38-48%. All this is normal. Most patients have 2-4 transfusions. We'll be happy to get away with just this one. Also, her platelet level is getting close to that magic number of 10 (K/uL). Her current platelet level is 14. Normal is 150-400. If she drops below 10, we'll be back to the hospital for another transfusion (of platelets this time).
So, it'll be a fun day of sitting in the hospital while hooked up to a machine.

1 comment:

The Weinert's said...

Hang in there Katie! We're both thinking of you and really hope you'll be in the clear soon.