Lori Anderson's Site: Yesterday's donation

Every Wednesday, like clockwork, I give a tube of blood for them to test to see how the treatment is effecting my body.
Last week, my white & red counts were so low that my Liver Doctor cut my treatment dose in half in hopes that my blood counts would rise on their own without having to add additional treatments to keep them stable.
Not sure if half the treatment brings about half the results but the good thing is there was a BIG difference in the side effects! I ended up with a pretty good week.
Anyhow, yesterday I went in and, again, they sucked out another tube of blood, but not without missing a vein here and there and digging around for a second or two trying to get one to cooperate.
How ironic is this......We walk in the office & wait for our name to be called. Then we jump right up when our name is called, and anxiously walk right in the Lab to find ourselves sitting in their cold little plastic seats. We sit there as still as we can patiently while they push around on our arms & hands to try and find a vein - once they think they have found one - we then allow them to stick a needle in us, hopefully only once or twice, and let them remove our blood. We en-dour the anxiety, the chills, the sweats, the nausea, the pain and then......once it is over.......not only do we pay them for this; we also thank them!

Ok....so my test results from yesterday came over on fax machine just this moment and the news is better!! Cutting the dose in half did bring up my white blood count, from 1.7 last week to 2.1 (THANK GOD!) It is still low, but not as low.....normal ranges for your white blood count at this lab (yes, they all differ) is 4.0 - 10.5 - So raising it up .4 is a huge deal!!!!! My red blood cells are continuing to decline. So we will see what the doc has to say about that - he calls me every Cure Day.

Speaking of every "Cure Day"
One of my dearest friends, Lorie really tries to make my "Cure Day" more bearable. When I check my email on Thursday mornings there is always something in my inbox from her. It is always something that makes me smile....here are some examples of what she sends me:)