Red Devil (AC) #2 (halfway done!!)

I had a good week+ after my first chemo. Foods started sounding better, my energy was up, I worked a full week with no medical appointments! My output went up every ride on my Peloton! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 It is so good to have healthy/good days to serve as reminders that it will get better.

I expect this chemo round to be a bit more emotional as I’ve read this is when most people lose their hair. The top of my head was starting to hurt a little (although it went away) – so if I start losing a lot of hair or the pain grows, Dan is going to buzz it. Luckily he cuts his own hair so knows how to do this! My punk pixie is already growing out a little and is awkward, so I mostly wear headbands to just push it back. I was telling Dan last night I want to think of myself as GI Jane when we buzz it! Bad ass – kicking cancer’s ass – pew pew cancer! Let me go do some push ups…

I had to go for labs on 3/7. As I said above, I’ve been feeling good and then got red freakin’ exclamation points in 2 out of 3 panels (metabolic panel all normal). After I saw the results, I got a call from the chemo nurse that my white blood cells were too low to have chemo on 3/8. She asked me to come in early before to retest to see if they increased enough to have chemo. She said I risk getting a serious infection and hospitalization if they proceed with levels too low. I asked if there was anything I could eat or do to increase levels and she said nothing she knew of. She said they may potentially increase my shots to 6 or 7 from 5. Eeeeeffffffffffff….

Dan and a friend of mine started Googling how to increase white blood count. They sent me info and I started pounding those foods: bowl of yogurt with a huge heaping of flaxseed meal and walnuts (hey omega 3s), dark chocolate, an orange for vitamin C, then a plant based protein shake, and beans at dinner. I was so full!

It worked! After a traffic delay getting to the medical center (whhhhy?? Nothing like a shot of adrenaline thinking I’d be late for my 8:30 appt and not be able to do my labs), I made it just in time to get my labs taken again. The result popped up in my chart while I was waiting for the oncologist to come in and my WBC count was up to just above the minimum to have chemo.

I saw a different oncologist before chemo. She wants me to do the labs the morning of chemo going forward for AC. She isn’t going to increase my shots yet. She said my head may start to itch or hurt at this point as my hair falls out. She didn’t think my foods had anything to do with the WBC increase but I’m going to keep doing that! Eat a ton of dark chocolate? Sure, twist my arm.

So, 2 Red Devils down and 2 more to go! I am making plans and really do not have time for any treatment delays. Always a fun life lesson in our true lack of control… got it universe, thanks. My nurse said chemo is cumulative, so may see longer or more side effects, so we’ll see what happens this time. ❤️