Health Update

I wasn't expecting to be writing a health update before my upcoming quarterly scans, but here we are. On Wednesday, I began experiencing the debilitating exhaustion I had had a month ago that resulted in a blood transfusion. I am trying to learn to speak up about my symptoms more quickly, so I reached out to my oncologist's office to see about coming in for a blood test. They got right back to me, I headed into the cancer center to get my labs drawn, and they went ahead and reserved the next available transfusion slot for me, which wasn't until Thursday morning.

They drew my blood, then sent me back to the waiting room until my results came in. I waited and waited. It seemed like it was taking much too long. They are amazingly fast at running labs, so I began to question whether my counts were as low as I thought they were. Maybe I was fine, and I shouldn't have said anything. Maybe they were figuring out what to do with me. I saw my Thursday transfusion appointment get cancelled and an appointment with my oncologist added in its place. Something seemed up, but I had no idea what.

Then the lab called me back for my results. Something seemed pretty off with the results - my hemoglobin wasn't quite as low as we were expecting for how bad I was feeling, but my white blood cells were really high and my platelets were really low.

They needed to re-draw and re-run my labs. While those were processing, I would meet with the onsite nurse practitioner, since my oncologist was on hospital duty that day. They were worried I might have an infection. However, the exam didn't find any signs or symptoms of an infection. I was told it might just be a blip or something that happens every time I get chemo; we just haven't noticed because we've never checked my bloodwork at this point before. We were going to go ahead with the blood transfusion the following day and hope everything else resolved on its own.

Thursday morning, I went in for my blood transfusion. They re-ran my labs a third time. My blood arrived in its cute little red cooler. I got a warm blanket and a vanilla caramel coffee (they are so attentive!). My oncologist popped in to say hi. Or so I thought.

But he was not there just to do a quick check-in. Apparently, that morning's labs showed the same thing the two on Wednesday did - high white blood cells, very low platelets. This was not just a blip or an ongoing-but-previously-unnoticed dip between treatments. My body was having an autoimmune reaction triggered by my chemo. And this was not something we could just treat with a platelet infusion. I would need to stop my current treatment altogether and switch to something else.

I was going to have to stop a treatment that was working for me. A treatment I felt comparatively so much better on. Yes, the fatigue, high blood pressure, nose bleeds, and chronic sinus issues were difficult, but they were much more preferable to the nausea I had on my last treatment. Not to mention that every time I have to switch treatments I'm one step closer to running out of options. What unexpected and hard news.

Of course, my oncologist came prepared with his next step recommendations. He wants me to try a new drug called Datroway/datopotamab (just approved January 17!). The last time I started a newly approved, promising drug was Ibrance, which worked for me for five years. So I'm all for trying new, exciting options. Plus, this one's name sounds like it starts with the word "data," which is near and dear to me from my years as a data analyst. :) I'll take anything that seems like a good sign.

But first we need to get my blood back in shape. I'll go in as scheduled on Tuesday (I was supposed to be getting chemo), but instead they'll do labs, and I'll meet with my oncologist to see if things are moving in the right direction. Will you pray that my platelets go up and my white blood cells go down, that this autoimmune issue will reverse itself? I'm not sure what the plan is if it doesn't. 

Would you also pray for my heart? I'm scheduled for my quarterly CT scan and brain MRI the week of May 19, and that will tell us how the treatments I'm leaving behind had been working for me (or not). I'm going to be even more sad about switching treatments if we find out they'd still been working.

After that, if my blood counts go back to normal and there is nothing newly concerning on my scans, I'm guessing we're looking to start the new treatment the week of May 26. Will you pray that this time off chemo won't allow the cancer to spread? If all goes as planned, I'll be a month without treatment, and that's a long time at this point. Things can change quickly. I'd love for everything to remain stable.

As always, thank you so much for your love, prayers, and support. They really mean so much to me!