Drama! Drama!
Well, the last week or so was pretty great. But the last two days have been a little slice of hell.
In the last few days I’ve had a huge amount of pain when – ahem, “voiding” my bladder. The muscle seems to be “spasming” which, on a 1-10 pain scale is in the 8 range. Not fun… and because of the spasms I feel like I have to go every hour. That means I’ve had the pleasure of the pain 48 times over the last two days.
Also, I noticed a rash on my legs which turned out to be petechia – which is basically my capillaries exploding under the skin because my blood doesn’t have enough platelets to clot.
In other words – I’m leaking.
So…
Went to the Doctors today (Thursday November 29) – twice.
Once for the spasms… got some meds – fingers crossed they work ‘cuz I can’t go through labor every hour just to empty 3 seconds of pee!
Then to the oncology folks to check my blood. The good news – it was red and there was some. The bad news – my platelet count is 40,000 per some Babylonian unit of measure (maybe imperial gallon – or pint – but not real sure.)
A “normal” count by contrast is – wait for it – 200,000 – 400,000. So ya might say I’m off a bit. The nurse we talked to said if the count doesn’t rebound over 100,000 by next Tuesday they’ll have to postpone my chemo – too dangerous to give it to me if my count isn’t back up. The chemo drugs affect your bone marrow and that is where platelets are born.
The problem with a count this low is that you can actually start bleeding internally from a simple fall and not even feel it. Therefore, I’ve laid bubble wrap on all the floors in the house and I’m not moving off the couch for a couple days while my wife waits on me hand and foot (hahahahah haha – yeah… right… that’s gonna happen – but the thought is kinda nice.)
So bottom line…
- Pee = hurts like hell.
- Blood = could all pour out at a moment’s notice like the oil from 1982 Plymouth Reliant.
All-in-all, not a bad day.