Dag Nab It!
Three of the side effects that I have managed to avoid have snuck into my life. Mouth sores is the first one, I have a couple of small ones and I'm gargling with nasty tasting stuff to keep those two little suckers under control. It's amazing after 2 1/2 weeks I can finally taste my food and I end up with mouth sores. Go figure! The second side effect is elevated blood pressure from the Avastin. My "normal" blood pressure is usually 116/60 but  today it reached 147/103, and that was after resting, its a good thing I wasn't jogging around the lake in the 100 degree temperature! I called to let my nurses know and they said elevation was "normal" but to watch for 200/100 which is stroke range. GREAT!!! SO I monitor daily and today was the highest yet, boogers!
The third side effect which is the one, believe it or not that really bugs me is my blood counts being too low. When I talk about blood counts, I am referring to White Blood Cell (WBC) counts, specifically my neutrophils which make up 60% of my WBC, the other 40% is a mixture of odd sounding names that I can't remember. The most important for me is the neutrophils. "Normal" is approximately 1250 and higher. If mine fall below 1000 I can't do the chemo, my counts this last time were 860. The WBC  are the "armed guards at the gate of the body" fending off all types of infections. When there are too few WBC my immune system is compromised opening up those gates for all sorts of stuff! The only ways to raise the WBC is rest, time or in critical cases injections that will boost WBC production. I had to have those injections with both previous cancers. They bring on their own set of side effects.
Tim and I are going to Little Rock tomorrow with the hope that the counts have gone up enough in the last couple of days to go ahead with chemo. If not, we will have to postpone and turn around and come home. Double boogers. I need all of you to say a prayer and keep those fingers(and toes) crossed that my counts rise enough to do this cycle. WE DO NOT WANT TO PUT ANY OF THESE NASTY CYCLES OFF! NO matter how much I hate the chemo I want to finish as soon as possible! I'll let you know tomorrow, one way or the other how I did.
God Bless!