Blog / Random thoughts and musings.

Getting better, but low platelets

Monday was definitely an improvement over Sunday… maybe there is something magic about the Magic Mouthwash. Mouth still hurt, but not as bad. I still felt like I had a heck of a cold too, so there was no way I was going in to work.

In the early afternoon a nurse at the hospital called, saying “I see you’re scheduled for medi-port surgery here at 1:15pm tomorrow”. That was the first I’d heard! I was expecting the surgery to be next week, after my blood counts had a chance to recover from the first chemo. I asked the nurse about the timing and she said to check with the surgeon. Surgeon’s nurse said it’s up to the oncologist to decide. Oncologist’s nurse said it’s up to the surgeon. So, I asked them to do a blood test rather than point fingers. I was tested at 4pm, last appointment of the day, and my platelet count and white counts were really low. Platelets (the cells that form clots and prevent bleeding) were at 55,000. The normal range is 142,000 – 424,000. I’ve read online that a platelet count of 50,000 or higher is needed for surgery, so I’m cutting it really close. I left a message for the surgeon’s nurse, but they had already closed for the day.

Just in case, I planned for the surgery going forward, meaning no food or drink after midnight. The surgeon called around 10am today though to tell me he’s a little uncomfortable with the platelet count, and would like to try next Monday or Tuesday when my counts should be much higher. His office had told me there were no available times on those days, but he said he’d try to work me in. Sounds like a much better plan, as I should be feeling close to 100% by then (I hope).

Since I’ll be getting blood tests every week, I’ve started tracking them online. Here’s my platelet counts: