I had my meeting with Dr Mark Ethell, the stem cell consultant at the Royal Marsden Sutton branch on Monday.  He just wanted to have a catch up with me and see me in person.  On paper I may have sounded like a disaster case with my recent renal failures, chest infections and low neutrophil counts, but actually I do not look ill at all when you see me in person.  One of the specialist nurses there commented that there is no way I have had that much chemo, to her I looked liked I had not had any!  And, all the nursing staff could not get over the fact that I was wearing a wig.  They all thought it was my own hair.  One of the nurses had worked there since 1975, and said she had never seen as good wig like mine before!  And, I am sure she has seen a fair share of wigs during her career.

Mark was talking to me about the plan when the harvesting and the high dose chemo may happen, all of which is totally dependent on the PET scan this Tuesday.  So, I will not go into details as it may all change next week.  I will know more after the scan has been in discussed at the Multidisciplinary Meeting (MDT) on Thursday next week.  But, it looks like the earliest I would be admitted in for the high dose chemo would be around the end of June.  We will see.

I had my blood counts checked on Monday, and unsurprisingly I was neutropenic!  Mark suggested injecting a booster that day, as I was scheduled for the 4B PMitCEBO next day.  My neutrophils count was 0.5, which is the cut off point for me to have the chemo.  Any lower, they would not go ahead.

Sadly the next day at Chelsea, my neutrophil count had dropped to 0.3 and they could not go ahead with 4B PMitCEBO.  I got really frustrated, as this happens EVERYTIME after the A-part.  I asked to the doctor reviewing me that why do not we boost the neutrophils beforehand if we know I will be neutropenic for the B-part??  He was not my usual doctor and he thought it was best if Lucy, my key nurse came to explain this to me.  Lucy said they cannot artificially keep on boosting my neutrophils, and that it is normal for the counts to go low after the A-part, and that I should not worry about these gaps in the treatment.

I think, I am not so bothered about not having the chemo weekly as planned in the sense of how effective the treatment is, as I am sure a week gap will not make a significant difference.  I am simply frustrated this keeps dragging on, and I cannot see an end to it all.  I feel a bit trapped with all these appointments, treatments, and low neutrophil counts, as I cannot fly to Finland for instance, or go anywhere for more than a couple of days, or make many plans for that matter.  I have been hoping to go to Finland since January, and it is nearly June… And, if my chemo had been going as planned, I would be having the high dose chemo as I type.

Anyway, I did have Rituximab yesterday, at least.  The 4B PMitCEBO I will have next Monday (blood counts permitting).