Update 10/9 - Blood levels/herceptin

Hi all,
I went for a CBC (blood level check) today, and of course the whites are fine, but the reds were low, so I received a procrit shot to try to buffer those levels and keep them up for surgery. It sure was nice to get some kind of scientific confirmation for why I have been feeling so fatigued (low red blood cell count = anemia and fatigue). It's going to take some time for it to kick in too, but oh well, right? My platelets were on the low side of normal, but normal yay! So, with regard to blood levels, I'm currently on schedule for surgery next week. I'll go next Monday to check them again before I head out to LA.

A problem arose with receiving my dose of herceptin that I'm due for on the 23rd....To you and me it seems simple, right, like a prescription to just have someone up there administer the pre-meds and the herceptin and that's it...well I guess it's not that simple. You see, someone has to be responsible for me, and that someone is usually an oncologist, and getting in to see an oncologist up there just so I can have an infusion of meds seems doubtful. Dr. Luke seemed to concur that it was going to be iffy for them to actually administer the herceptin up there I could miss it by a week and that would be okay he said so maybe I'll just push the schedule out and get the dose when I come back to the deserts. It depends. I don't want to be off the schedule because I don't want there to be a lapse in treatment. So, tomorrow i have to fax all of the paperwork from Dr. Luke to Dr. Silverstein's assistant at USC to see if they can do something through his office, but it basically hinges on whether or not he wants to be responsible for me, that is under his care, while I infuse the herceptin, since usually that's an oncologist's juridiction. So, that's the latest wrinkle that I'll have to iron out.

Lastly, I'm going to see a nutrutionist this Thursday at the Curci Cancer center so I'll let you know how that goes. The cancer center has a nutritional round table discussion about it at a luncheon king of thing on Wednesday. Earlier that day, I'll go with Karen to the Gilda's club group and check it out what support group is like. I've been to Gilda's before, but haven't been able to attend any of the groups until now, so I'll let you all know how that goes.

That's all for now :-)

Julie