No one ever said it was going to be easy

Referring to this journey as a fight, couldn’t be more accurate.

You hear that it’s going to be a battle, but you never really know what to expect as you get tossed into the ring to face your opponent… cancer.

My Dad managed to get through round 1 of the chemo drugs with minimal setbacks and forward momentum. As a group we thought, “ok, we can do this”. Then, out of nowhere, cancer bit our ear off (Not literally people! Jer still has ears)... now I know how Evander Holyfield felt.

Chemotherapy not only kills the abnormal cancer cells in the body, it attacks every rapidly dividing cell (cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles). The cytarabine has managed wipe out my Dad’s blood counts, which has left him struggling to main adequate functioning blood levels. To further understand what I mean when I say “blood counts”, I’ll fill you in on the normal limits:

WBC: 4.0-11.0

Hemoglobin: 137-180 -> transfusion necessary when below 80

Platelets: 150-400 -> transfusion necessary when below 20

As a result of his low numbers, a few platelets and blood transfusions were necessary this week. Being immunocompromised and anemic has definitely brought us our fair share of challenges. The doctors expect his counts to begin to go up by day 20, and by day 23-28, they should be high enough for his bone marrow to be tested again, which will determine if he is in remission.

We live one day at a time, and sometimes, one hour at a time. I am looking forward to tomorrow, where I hope to see gains in his hemoglobin and platelet count. As a group, we all need a ‘gain’ day.