Sadie's ANC is playing games with us. She needs to be at 500 in order for us to go home, and in order for her to have a port put in to replace her picc-line. (Here's a link that will explain a port.)
To give you an idea of the numbers, the reference range we've been given for a normal, healthy child is an ANC of 1500 to 8500.
Sadie's ANC has been hovering in the 20s and 30s. Close to nothing.
Then Sunday it jumped up to 120!
Monday it went up to 170! (I thought we were close to heading home! I could sense the urgency around us getting us ready to go home. I finished my "trainings." They prepped the medicines, we signed the consent to have the port put in. We were ready!)
Then Tuesday it dropped to 60.
Wednesday it was down to 56. (They tell us this is because they did a manual count rather than an automated count. This means a person rather than a machine counted the cells. When it's a manual count, they use a much smaller sample size, and that's what they attribute the lower ANC to. It makes me wonder what's more accurate, a manual count or an automated count. Which one is telling us her real ANC?)
Today it was back at 170. (They did an automated count.) I'm not sure whether to be excited or not.
I'll wait and see what tomorrow tells us.
Her WBC (White blood cell count) is gradually going up and her hemoglobin and platelets are low but stable so these are good signs. Today was another dose of Chemo.
1 year ago
2 comments:
Oh man. How frustrating! At least you are all *trained* so as soon as Sadie's ANC hits a safe level you can go home.
Thanks for keeping us updated Angela. Hope you get to go home soon. We're thinking of you.
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