Rachana is now at home. Rachana’s leukemia is now down to 0% and the doctor is comfortable to move to the next phase of the treatment as an outpatient. The full biopsy report will be available in 4-5 days but the doctor made this call from the flow cytometry test. Starting next week she will… Read More Day 30 – Back home, a stronger soul
The CT scan of the stomach came back all clear. There was no infection. The doctors think it’s the sores/ulcers, same as the mouth, that are troubling the stomach. It’ll heal as the blood counts, the white blood cells, the ANC keep rising to normal levels. The bone marrow biopsy was done this afternoon. It was… Read More Day 29 – Oh the anticipation
Last night was rough for Rachana, the stomach pain didn’t let her sleep. The pain medication helped a bit but didn’t solve it. This morning the doctors suggested a CT Scan of the stomach to make sure there are no internal infections. Also her blood counts dropped; ANC fell to 320 (from 470) and Hemoglobin was… Read More Day 28 – Slight detour
Rachana is now taking pain medication at a more regular frequency and mouth ulcers pain seems to be under control. Her ANC is now at 470 and if the trend continues she’ll be above 500 by tomorrow and that means she can stop doing the wipes as her body can handle the normal bacteria on skin; one step closer… Read More Day 27 – Turning a corner, maybe?
Calibration of pain experienced by a patient is not an exact science. The doctors ask you to choose a number between 1 and 10 (10 being the worst) and then they try out a few options to see what works for you. Rachana’s ANC has jumped to 300, which is awesome news and I can clearly see her mouth… Read More Day 26 – Pain Control
I had a great reason for not writing the blog last night – I was spending the evening with the kids. We had a great time just kidding around the house, read a book and slept all snuggled up. They spent an hour at the hospital yesterday (Apr 23). Before reaching the hospital the kids had… Read More Day 25 – Kids day out
We’ll take that, slow progress over no progress. Rachana is looking a little better and talking a little more; all good signs. She takes a good 30 mins of rest to recoup from 10 mins of talk, that’s how weak her body is. The doctors have increased the dosage of the birth control pill in an attempt to control… Read More Day 24 – Slow progress
The brain MRI came out good. The doctors were looking to see if there were any lumps, swelling, blood clots, internal bleeding, leukemia in nervous system, etc that might have caused the blurry vision issue. Thankfully this came out negative. The Ophthalmologist came in the afternoon and did a bunch of tests and confirmed that he does not… Read More Day 23 – Two steps ahead, one step back
Diarrhea is now under control after a day of mayhem. But sore throat/ulcer is not going anywhere. She is having discomfort much deeper in her throat and the doctors say it’s likely that the ulcers are not just in the mouth but perhaps through her entire GI tract. She had a reasonable breakfast but lunch… Read More Day 22 – Chemo dose 4 of 4
This morning Rachana went from 2 days of constipation to 10 hrs of diarrhea. They had given fiber supplements and two other meds to handle constipation and then Rachana asked for a suppository, which triggered the diarrhea. In talking to another nurse, she said usually they don’t give suppositories to patients who have low neutrophils (ANC),… Read More Day 21 – The symptoms pendulum swings wildly
Rachana's recovery from Leukemia 