Wednesday, April 10, 2019. A normal platelet count ranges (in thousands) from 150 to 450 platelets per microliter of blood. Having less than 150 is known as thrombocytopenia. You get your platelet number from a routine blood test called a complete blood count (CBC).
My count yesterday was 77, way below normal, so they sent me home. No chemo for Lana. We made our 6-hour round trip for a blood draw. The good news is it was a beautiful day for a long drive. So nice, in fact, that a lot of commuters must have played hooky because traffic was light, relatively speaking.
Basically platelets stop us from bleeding. They help the blood to clot. Symptoms of a low count include easy bruising, and frequent bleeding from the gums, nose (me), or GI tract. Your platelet count drops when something is preventing your body from producing platelets.
Causes include:
• Medications
• An inherited condition
• Certain types of cancer, such as leukemia or lymphoma
• Chemotherapy treatment for cancer (me)
• Kidney infection or dysfunction
• Too much alcohol (oh, I wish)
Symptoms include:
• Headache (that must be the alcohol thing)
• Dizziness or light-headedness (me)
• Chest pain
• Weakness (me)
• Numbness or tingling of the hands and feet (me)
I guess I needed some time off. I felt pretty crappy all week after my last treatment. Even yesterday I was nauseous most of the day. And tired, so very tired.
So a recovery week is a good thing, even if it extends my treatment schedule by one week. The weather is supposed to be fairly decent, I should kinda get back to feeling good, and I can fatten up a bit before my next treatment. It all sounds great to me.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. —Sir Winston Churchill
lana has cancer 