Brinley is still here at Primary's today. Her ANC continues to stay at 0 and we are really hoping it will come up at least a little by tomorrow. She has a little sore in her mouth and is having a hard time going to the bathroom, so we are giving her miralax to soften things up so she can go. I am a little worried about the mouth sore because I know with low ANC you can get sores through your whole intestinal tract that can be very painful. I have been worried about that for months because she has complained of pain during bowel movements for a while now, but always had a nice high ANC. The sore in her mouth is not very painful yet, just annoying her because she said it feels like a "bump", but it is not affecting her eating or anything. We'll just keep an eye on it. The nurse said they take them very seriously with 0 ANC, but the strong antibiotic she is on should be helping out.


The doctor recommended giving her a neupogen shot today to move things along (a shot that stimulates your body to create new white blood cells) , but I decided I did not want to do that. I would like to see her body recover on it's own. The last time we did the neupogen her ANC skyrocketed in 2 days, then fell again. I just didn't like it much, plus my regular onc said he is not a huge fan of neupogen. It can cause fevers and some other issues. He said he only recommends it if there is something major they are fighting, but with a negative culture and still no fever in over 24 hours he said it is not necessary. It was recommended by a different onc, who I also trust, but you just get different opinions across the board. We decided to wait at least one more day and decide tomorrow.

Dr. Fluchel was scratching his head as to why she would have crashed like this. It seemed strange to him, but he said a possible virus could be the culprit. Her red blood is also borderline transfusion, so they left it up to us to transfuse today. We decided against it since she isn't symptomatic and is happy and feeling fine. If it continues to drop tomorrow we will do a blood transfusion. Her platelets also dropped, but not low enough where she is at any risk. They are just slightly below where they should be. We didn't touch her chemo last visit,and her ANC was 4500. Thank goodness Dr. Fluchel decided not to increase her oral dose of chemo.

We were hoping for a nice smooth landing coming off-treatment, but it looks like Brinley's body decided on more of a crash landing. Oh well, at least we are landing, less than two weeks for her last IV treatment!!

Will update again tomorrow, maybe from home! They are considering just sending her home with IV antibiotics since she is fever free and nothing grew in the culture. Thank you for your thoughts, well wishes, prayers, encouragement. We appreciate it so much.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

What is the world. I am so sorry. This all seems very strange. I wish I had known that you guys were there, I would have come up (with a mask and very clean hands), to visit. I was in the ER all day with my baby. He choked, but is okay now. It's a long story. Please let me know what you need. You'll be in our prayers.

Chelsea said...

Maybe Brinley just wanted one more stay up at Hotel PCMC. Im glad she is happy and doing well- it is so crazy how a tiny virus can make their ANC drop so quickly! I am praying they send you home soon!