…. But I’ve been feeling really good.

Oh there. I’ve done it now. I bet I get sick tomorrow. Still this is supposed to be an account of the ups and downs and I wanted to share an up.

It’s been six or seven weeks since I was in hospital and things are looking up. I have been back to my old self, pre pericarditis a year a half ago. People have commented I look back to normal, and more importantly seem back to normal, with energy and drive. Jo has been pleased I’m actually helping around the house (shock horror) and I’ve certainly approached work with a certain joie de vivre.

Most importantly I’ve had blood test results just this last week and for the first time in over a year my lymphocytes have improved. They have been at 0.4 since the third chemo session. (Normal is 1 to 4.8). This week they were 0.7. almost doubling in a month. So hopefully this is the rally we were looking for. The sudden increase to normal, 6-9 months after chemo (it’s been 8). I don’t want to get my hopes up… But it’s good news. My hemoglobin are steady at 15.6 (average is 13.8 to 17.2) platelets at 187 (normal 150-400). The only slight drop is neutrophils, which are down to 1. (These fight bacteria and should be between 2.5 and 7).

Those might be down to a drug change which Doctor Hodson things have improved the other areas in how I feel. So we are going to monitor it and I’ll come off it if it drops more.

This med change.was back to cotrimoxazole (an antibiotic used to treat certain infections, pneumonia, bronchitis etc) from a rather more abstract aquavone (just for pneumonia protection) and upped my acoclovir (antiviral) from 200 to 400 and that may have made me feel better but may be responsible for the neutrophils. Nothing to worry about yet.

The other news was my iron (ferratin) has now dropped to 1000. You may remember this was high due to the many blood transfusions, but it is now only twice what it should be (it was 3000 and should be 500). So only a few more bleedings needed.

So all in all very good news across the board. I have a CT scan next week, to see how my insides are. I may have semi permanent scarring to my lungs from my infections, one to check. And other than this another blood test in a month to see if my lymphocytes continue to rally.

But for once a positive blog. A positive six weeks and a great change from writing about negatives! I hope you are all well. :).