August 9th ~ Is this improvement?

This may mean something. It may not, but either way it's a change and I believe a positive one.

I haven't looked at a blood test result for some time. Frankly there weren't many changes. Bill handed me the results of the samples collected on 8/3 and I immediately noticed a difference. Every blood test that I remember looking at, Dad had a WBC of 6 or 7. That's fairly normal for you or me, but Dad had an ear infection. Why wasn't it higher? (WBC or White Blood Cells are the pac-man like cells that have the task of getting rid of the infection.) He has and infection. It SHOULD be higher. Well the results I'm looking at now reflect that. Dad's WBC was 15.3 - double what it has been running! My interpetation is that his immune system is starting to wake up!

The test also differentiates the white cells into groups. One of the groups is called neutrophils. Neutrophils have the ability to digest bacteria cells. In June Dad's neutrophils were 3.3 - on the low end of the spectrum. This week they are almost tripled to 8.9. Lymph cells, another type of white cell, were 1.8 in June and they too have tripled to 5.6. I would be asking the doctor before I got to excited about these results - maybe Dr. Hidari would have some input. I think they very well could be a positive result of the chemotherapy and an early sign that Dad's immune system may be coming back online.

The other results show that Dad's kidneys are running about the same level with the creatinine at 2.22 and the BUN at 62. One point of interest, and I'm not sure this is good, but this test was taken after Dad had diarrhea for 4-5 days. Remember, when Dad's potassium was high and they gave him a med to give him diarrhea to bring it down? Well, just based on that, you would think Dad's potassium would be low, but it wasn't. Not sure if that is significant at all.

June 20th

Greetings all!! So, we just returned from Dr. Rabinov's office.. she said dad had a stubborn abscess  ( a pus pocket was her medical term) ... she lanced it and pus came out (yuk!).  It bled, but Dad said it didn't hurt. Because of the abscess, she wants to keep him on the anti-biotics for at least another round... She took a tissue sample and sent it out for a culture and will have the results when he goes for his visit next WED June 27th at 4:15 pm.  

She suspects this abscess may be the original culprit of the infection.

As for blood results:  and in a quick comparison to the results from last week:

WBC 5.6 - down a little, but still in the normal range

RBC 3.11  - up a bit.. but still low

Hemoglobin 9.9  down a smidgen and still low

Hematocrit 30.1  down an even smaller smidgen (30.2 last time)  but still low

 

I have scanned the full results pages and am including them here.  

Dad was bummed, but okay.. knowing he had to have the picc line in anyway.. And I told him, Dr. Rose indicated that if the infection is completely clear when she sees him next week, she will likely only recommend the picc line stay in for another week, so I relayed that to Dad, and he felt mubh better... I told him I would pass the info on to Jim, so he could remind Dr. Rose next week at their next visit.... ;-)