Low blood cells counts feel REALLY BAD

Wednesday I started sagging. I didn't have any endurance. Even listening to someone talk for more than five minutes wore me out.

Thursday I drove straight through a red light -- while other traffic was going through!! I could have caused a deadly accident. It's like I was suddenly asleep at the wheel or something. If I carried a couple of bags of groceries from the car up the stairs to the front door, I couldn't make it up the stairs inside the house to the living room. I had to sit down on the bottom step and rest.

Resting a few minutes seemed to give me what I needed and then I would be OK again.

I knew with the crappy feeling I had Thursday night that I'd need to go in and see my oncologist Friday morning.

Fridaty morning the kids try two times to get me out of bed. I finally managed to drag myself to the dining room and sit down. I got Delphine and Paul's breakfast ready, but had to take frequent breaks. At the end, I was so worn out I had to sit down at the table again. I couldn't get up. I managed to get up once to try and start Delphine's lunch, but moving 2 feet to the freezer and opening it completely depleted me.

I decided to just sit at the table and let Francois make Delphine's lunch when he came home.

But sitting there, I started feeling worse -- and worse -- and worse. I knew Francois should be home any minute, so I didn't call 911. But by the time he walked in the door, I was losing consciousness with my head on the table. So he called 911!

And of course, by the time the cute, young firemen appeared, I felt much better. I could stand. They took my blood pressure (80/50) and we promised to go straight to the hospital.

My blood counts are very low -- and my oncologist thinks she is going to have to rethink my whole chemo treatment. She's trying to figure out why I didn't react this way with the first cycle. I *did* take the Neulasta! The nurses were my witnesses.

Maybe it's that magic new anti-nausea drug??

Anyway, now I'm all into shocking you all with my stats. I do love the attention (LOL).

Here are my scores:

White Blood Cell 0.4 K/uL
(Normal is 4.1 - 10.9 K/uL)

Red Blood Cell 2.86 M/uL
(Normal is 4.2 - 6.3)

HCT 27% They give you blood transfusions when you're at 25%
(Normal is 37 - 51%)

Platelets 45,000
(Normal is 140,000 - 440,000)

I'm on day 8 after chemo. Apparently your lowest cell count is usually around day 10. I'm hoping I just tend to process faster and my cell counts will start going up NOW!!

Low blood cell counts feel like the worst flu you've ever had in your life, without the vomiting and with no recordable fever. I FEEL like I should have a 105 degree fever, but I'm still at 98.6

Here's the good news -- Our pantry is STUFFED with delicious Belgian chocolate. Thank you Jerome, Victor and Martin!!