Battle Hymns of a Hot Mess Mom

I may have spoke too soon. MRD is the Minimum Residual Disease Test. An MRD negative result means that no disease was detected after treatment. Doctors use MRD to measure the effectiveness of treatment and to predict which patients are at risk of relapse. It can also help doctors confirm and monitor remissions, and possibly identify an early return of the cancer. And…it wasn’t negative. It came back as inconclusive which isn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. The Flow cytometry is a technique used to detect and measure physical and chemical characteristics of a population of cells or particles. In this process, a sample containing cells or particles is suspended in a fluid and injected into the flow cytometer instrument. In that test I was negative for cancer. So…doctor told any to focus on recovery and not think too much. My head has to remain in the game.

He is giving another two weeks of hydration which is great because I’m just not drinking enough water as everything just tastes like garbage. My hemoglobin and platelets are dropping again. I was 6 for hemoglobin today and 74 for platelets; where I was soaring high at 8 hemoglobin and over 200 for platelets. He tells me it’s okay to ebb and flow. I am trying to take that in and not sweat it – but of course easier said than done. I was scheduled for a transfusion and about 10 minutes into it I couldn’t breathe and my heart rate was skyrocketing. They stopped the blood and I was on oxygen for about 30 minutes until I was leveled out.

Dr. P’s NP that I still have never met – the one who told me to put cream on top of my sealed dressing and who didn’t bother to tell me the appropriate dosages to medication. Of course he gave the nurses a hard time and refused to discharge me. Rather he wanted me to wait the 4 hours the labs would take to run and understand why there was an allergic reaction. Unfortunately I had to AMA – which will be a grip for me as it won’t be covered under insurance. Sigh. I didn’t have a choice; had to pick up my kids from school. So tomorrow I’ll be headed to the Infusion Center close to home where J can drop me off in the AM and when I’m about done – I can call him.

It’s 1:15am and I’m still awake – still trying to push down the nausea so that I can sleep. As I scroll through a parade of dog videos I know that I can’t mess around anymore. It’s bed time.