Here is Liz's latest update:
"I'm late with this update, because chemo #4 hit me pretty hard. I felt very, very wiped out over the weekend, and spent a lot of time resting in bed (although I was able to attend a great musical assembly at the girls' school). Then on Monday, after a very nice in-home mani/pedi party hosted by my good friend Sara, I came down with a fever, which continued into Tuesday. My oncologist had me go into the ER Tuesday night, when the fever got pretty high, to have my blood levels checked...and it turned out my white cells were dangerously low (basically zero), so they admitted me to the hospital.
And I'm still here, on Thursday evening. I have been getting lots of IV antibiotics, and non-stop IV fluids, plus shots to boost the white cells. So far my counts have gone up from 0.2 to 0.8, which is at least in the right direction...they have to get to at least 1.5, I think. They will check my levels again in the morning, but there is just a 50/50 chance they will be high enough to go home on Friday, according to the doctor. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It has been very hard to be away from the baby and kids and Nathan...harder for me than them, probably, but also hard on them. They have been able to come visit me a few times, which totally cheered me up. I do feel it was definitely necessary to come here, as I was feeling extremely ill at home and wouldn't have been able to kick the infection without help...but I can't wait to go home.
The good news is that was my last chemo treatment with adriamiacin and cytoxan. Next I start the four treatments with taxol, and that does not cause the white cells to drop. It also won't cause all the digestive upsets I've been having, thankfully. It will cause me to feel achy like I have the flu for a few days each time, and will probably cause some neuropathy. We'll hope I can stay on schedule...if my counts don't go up enough by the weekend, they might delay my next chemo by a week.
A big thank you for the delicious meals we received last week! Thanks Kimberley, Sara, and Alexa and Greg! And thanks to Sara for hosting my "half-way-done" mani-pedi party (it was also a party for our friend who just had a baby today. Congratulations Nicole!). And thanks to Adele for picking up the girls after school for a play date...you are awesome. And thanks to my mom for coming with me to the ER, and Mom and Dad for helping with the baby and kids...and huge, huge thanks to my wonderful husband for holding everything together at home while I'm gone. Oh, and many, many thanks to all the mamas who donated milk for Griffin this week, and to Tammi for bringing a big supply over to us! We were down to the last few bags, I put out one email, and then poof, we had milk...amazing. We are so grateful. I hope everyone saw the article in the Post this week about milk-sharing...it was a little limited (no mention of reasons for needing milk donations, other than low-supply), but good to see it getting publicity.
Thanks to everyone for your love and support. I'll let you know when I get out of here.
Love you all,
Liz"
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