Saturday +58 (9:30 PM) What A Difference A Day Makes

I am happy to report that Jackie (for now) seems to be on the road to recovery! Although she started the day with a sudden and very short wave of nausea and vomiting, she did really well today. The nausea was likely caused by a morning dose of Oxycodone to help her usual morning back pain. Once that was out of the way she experienced very little nausea or back pain. Her energy level was very good and her spirits were high. A lot of this is due to her increased blood counts. The counts have likely increased due to the Neupogen shots she has received. Although the growth factor shots don't explain the sudden increase in her RBC (Hgl) count. The growth factor shots really only increase the WBC count.

With that said, her RBC (Hgl) increased to 10.0 from 9.1 yesterday. It is amazing what a difference a small change in these numbers mean in terms of overall well being. I've gotten so good at recognizing her Hgl count from her morning energy level I can usually guess the number within a few tenths of a point. If Jackie ever gets into a normal 12-13 range she will be ready to take on the world!

Although she is receiving growth factor shots in the form of Neupogen her white cells have not increased dramatically. In fact they decreased slightly from yesterday. Today's count was 1.3 down from yesterday's 1.4. Once again I did not get an ANC level, but it is likely to be in the .60 - .75 range. This is still very low and danger from infection is higher. Jackie's platelets moved up a bit today. They were at 133 compared to yesterday's 118. They continue to do well!

I know there are other people besides family and friends who are reading the blog. This is due to the fact that the blog is linked to a couple of CLL topic sites. For this reason I wanted to mention an article by Cheya Venkat. Cheya is the founder of www.clltopics.org. It is the premier site for all things CLL. For those dealing with CLL she has a new article dealing with opportunistic infections. The direct link to article is: http://www.clltopics.org/Complications/InfectiousComplications.htm

I strongly recommend anyone dealing with CLL read the article. In some ways the last 4 or 5 paragraphs are the most important parts of the entire article. She talks about how local oncologists and hematologists deal with the somewhat rare CLL disease. I find her analysis to be dead-on.

Technical stuff: Lastly, some people may wish to receive the blog as an RSS feed. If you don't know what an RSS feed is don't worry about this paragraph! For the RSS feed link use: http://ackjackie.blogspot.com/atom.xml I also have all the videos done here in Rochester available as video podcasts. I haven't determined how to include the podcasts in this blog. If you would like one for your video iPod email me and I will see if I can determine how to either return one or include it as part of this blog. You will notice one change. I have added a flash film loop that will be included with each new blog entry. As I take photos I will add to the film loop. If you wish to view a larger version of the photo you will need to install a film loop viewer. Clicking on a photo in the loop will lead you to their site and you will be given instructions for installing either a Windows or Mac viewer. If you are using a dial-up Internet connection don't bother - it will be too slow.

Until Later...

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN