Since my arms are getting weak, here’s the update I just posted over on the Hodgkin’s forum:
Well, I’m back from the clinic where I’ve had a meteoric rise in my WBC – 600 yesterday, 2800 today. Booyah. I’m officially not neutropenic! Let’s hear it for neupogen! SuperCoop did blanch a little when I mentioned diving into the public swimming pool or wrestling a herd of toddlers. I’ll go ahead and put off those activities ’til next week.
The only other thing I have going on is a weird bubbling sound/feeling in the lower lobe of my right lung. SuperCoop sent me right over for a chest CT which was mostly inconclusive. There’s a little bit of fluid in my lungs (I blame Netflix) and around the middle of my lung is a thing that had a name that started with “A” which I’ve already forgotten. Basically, it appears to be an aftereffect of the thymectomy, where possibly some scar tissue is preventing my lung from inflating all of the way in that one spot/band.
Speaking of thymectomy, the oncology fellow (who was actually a woman) walked me over to the CT and was asking all about my history and the thymectomy. When I told her that the Beckster thought he had gotten about 90% of the mass and that it was much more difficult than he thought it would be (10 hour surgery instead of 2 hour), she said “oh yeah – you’re the one where it was attached to the lining of your heart!” To which I astutely replied “Bwuh?” Looks like the alien inside was going after my tasty bits and didn’t want to let go. Go figure.
So tomorrow I go in for a little bit of fluid and a listen to the lungs, but probably not much more needs to be added to my system. Plus, the best news of all!
Today was the last of the neupogen.