Go, Go Gadget...GCSF!

Hello again. Exciting news! Since I last posted, my white blood cell count tripled, and then tripled again! So I now have an ANC of 540, which means I'm no longer neutropenic (barely)! Have I explained neutropenia before? It's when your white blood cell count (specifically your neutrophil count) is below 500, leaving you extremely vulnerable to infection. Now that my ANC (absolute neutrophil count) is over 500 (as I said, barely), I'm less vulnerable to infection. For a comprehensive - and hilarious - explanation of the whole ANC thing, see Saif's comment on the previous blog posting.

So, Dieter (see Saif's comment) is growing up quite nicely so far. With the help of some more GCSF, he should be churning out a few thousand more neutrophils within the next week or so. The doctors here will be happy when my ANC is above 5000. One doctor explained to me today that they like to see my counts above 1000 for at least 3 days, and then above 5000. Once I reach that point, I can stop giving myself the daily GCSF shots, which will be nice.

My friend David (who lives in Cambridge, MA) visited me in the hospital today with his mom, who is my mom's best friend. After visiting, they went over to my house to assemble an Ikea dresser I had bought, but not gotten around to assembling. Can you imagine a nicer thing to do for someone?? I mean, Ikea's assembly instructions are often enough to make one not just pull one's hair out, but possibly scream a string of swear words that can only be found in the Urban Dictionary. Apparently, it's going well. Anyway, thank you so much, David and Betsy, for your help.

I have friends coming tonight, too, and maybe we'll play some taboo and go on a walk or something. It'll be fun. :-)

Hope you're all well!