Electra & AML: The road to recovery

(See all posts related to Electra's ongoing treatment)

So, a little update and some general housekeeping/response to a few bits of criticism.

First, the update, and the update is predominantly good news. In short, today was a day that brought some very welcome positive news. As I described in my first posting on the subject, in each cycle of chemotherapy, one's immune system is decimated along with the the cancerous cell (in this case in Electra's bone marrow). The hope, of course, is that the immune system starts to rebound more quickly than the cancer, and the body heals itself and also wipes out the cancer. Electra will go through four of these cycles.

Well, today marked a milestone in that Electra's platelet count has stabilised. The platelets, which are responsible for blood clotting, fixing bruises and so forth in the body, are one of the three types of blood cells which Electra was low on (the others being white and red blood cells). She's been receiving platelet transfusions during her treatment to keep these levels up-transfusions to which she's had several significant adverse reactions. However, over the past two days, her platelet levels have remained essentially stable (dropping from 47 on Friday, to 45 yesterday and 44 today). This is a clear and unambiguous sign that her body has started to recover, as normally they would've dropped to the mid-20s in this time period. So, her body has clearly begun to manufacture its own platelets, a very important step indicative of a recovering system.

The next key marker is to see her neutrophils recover. Neutrophils are the most abundant type of white blood cell and the body's primary defense mechanism against disease and infection-basically the Royal Marines of the body. It is the lack of these cells that puts her at the most risk of infection while at the hospital, requiring greater isolation, careful attention to diet and related precautions. If these start to rebound in significant numbers (likely to happen within the next week or so), so should be able to get out of the hospital for awhile and do some recovery at home. This will be an obvious boon for her spirits. Of course, it's also the harbinger of the second cycle of chemo; it's important to attack the cancer before it has a chance to regroup, so it's done while the body is at its healthiest and the cancer only starting to rebound. So the double-edged sword is that when you feel at your best, you get hit with round two of chemo. But that's for another week; for now, she has a home visit to look forward to.

On a potentially more pragmatic note, Electra's mother (who'd been visiting for two weeks) and brother (who'd been visiting for the last week or so) both left today, and she was sad to see them go, as were they at having to leave. Sadly, the is is the reality of Electra's situation; her geographic separation from her family makes visits hard and though the time is precious, real life insists they must eventually come to an end. I am here for her now and can hopefully pick up some of that slack, but when you're sick, I'm not sure that anyone or anything can replace your parents and siblings.

So, now onto some constructive criticism I've received about these posts. Electra feels that I've been sugarcoating the news for all of you, trying to soften blows and edit reality. And I suppose that's true to an extent; I don't relish the thought of being the bringer of doom and/or gloom, so perhaps I do try to put a positive spin on things; alternately maybe I'm just a glass-half-full type of guy (I'm not; I personally feel that in that allegory the glass is merely twice as large as is required). So, let me be blunt: things are looking up, but they were very hard for a time. Electra lost most of her appetite, she was nauseous and in pain for much of the day, her hair has started to fall out and she repeatedly spiked a fever. The doctors assured us that everything she experienced was to be expected and that we needn't fret, but it's hard not to. Every single day was a struggle for her for more than a week, specifically the week after chemo ended. Her body had been hit by ten days of intense and horrific treatment and responded by essentially shutting down. Fatigue was constant, dizziness frequent and she ached and felt like she'd been run over by a train.

This was hard for me to hear, and I know it was hard for her mother to witness. I don't know whether to feel relieved to have missed it, or guilty to have done so, but I expect to be here for much of the week after her 2nd cycle of chemo, which we're told will be even worse, so perhaps that will be my penitence for missing the first one. All I know is that while I am confident things will turn out well, and the doctors felt she was reacting as well as can be expected, that the end-of-tunnel light was tough to spot at times. It should be noted in my defense that I wasn't wholly coddling you all; Electra was in fact coddling me and not filling me in on all these details. Further, I don't want to alarm you, so perhaps I was softening a little-this aspect of the treatment is expected, she is very well monitored by very competent people. Were there anything to be alarmed about, we would be informed. But I don't want to seem like I'm sugar-coating: she will emerge victorious, but only after four very intense battles. This is Iwo Jima in 1945: an all-out battle with great cost and sacrifice but one I know we can win.