Wrestling with a 600 lb Gorilla

Where do I begin? Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 1:35 am, Sam was finally taken to his room in Passavant Hospital. Because he had a low white blood cell count, low neutrophil count and a temperature of 103.3, the risk of infection was great enough for him to be admitted. Diagnosis: Neutropenia. What is that, I wondered – you may be wondering that, too?

Here’s what I found:
White Blood Cells (WBCs) include several different types. Each has their own role in protecting the body from germs. The three major types are neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes. Neutrophils (also known as granulocytes or polys) kill most bacteria. Monocytes kill germs such as tuberculosis. Lymphocytes are responsible for killing viruses and for overall management of the immune system. When lymphocytes see foreign material, they increase the body’s resistance to infection. WBCs play a major role in fighting infection. So infections are more likely to occur when there are too few normal WBCs in the body.

Neutrophils are a type of white cell found in the blood. Their main job is to fight infection especially infections caused by bacteria and fungi. So if your neutrophil count is low this means you are more at risk from infections. A low neutrophil count is called neutropenia.

Apparently Neutropenia is common after chemo and radiation. Chemo kills cells and with the punch of a 600 pound gorilla, it flattened Sam. But, Sam is a fighter and he has battled back. As usual, things don't go smoothly in hospitals. It took several requests to get formula for his feeding tube. They kept sending up trays of liquid food. We kept refusing the trays explaining that he is not taking food by mouth and finally at 5:00pm he got formula. Then they couldn't get the pump to work. Finally, one of the nurses suggested we use gravity to let the food drip. Poor Sam thought he was going there to be taken care of; instead he had to lobby for food, while enduring a fever and being on serious pain meds.

I was worried about him on Tuesday, but today he looked better and they have been giving him a drug called Nupegen to help his neutrophil counts return to baseline. This usually takes about 4 days. The nurse called the side effects of chemotherapy causing nadir which refers to low point of blood counts due to the destruction of cells, good and bad. She also said that what happend with Sam happens often from radiation and chemo. For more info, follow this link:

http://www.chemocare.com/whatis/what_is_nadir.asp

In addition to the neutropenia, Sam is still very tired and weak, has a very sore throat and has some laryngitis. He will be in the hospital for several more days until his counts are high enough and his temperature normalizes.

There are some "only God" moments to share: The ER doctor treating Sam told us his father had just recovered from a very similar treatment for cancer of the larynx. He was very thorough and compassionate toward Sam. Also, Sam thought he saw blood in his urine on Monday night and that pushed our decision to take him to the hospital. At the hospital, the tests showed no blood in his urine. Coincidence? Not in my mind.

We appreciate your continued prayers for our battle. Pray that we can have renewed strength to go another round with the 600 pound gorilla called radiation and chemotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma.

Sorry I haven't posted sooner... I've been swamped. I'll post again tomorrow.

Love,

Maddy