Pushing the Rock

Had my neck ultrasound and CBC today. Zed (the mass in the neck) is dead. The radiologist believes Zed was just an artifact of blood flowing through the jugular bulb at the valve in the vein. That's good.

My blood counts seem to be settling back to their pre-chemo levels. The platelets fell all the way back to 87 -- down from 136 2 weeks ago. That's bad. Fortunately, my neutrophils have climbed higher, but only up to 880 (up from 795). They seem to be leveling out to where they would be had I not had the chemo. The reds have also inched back up, but only slightly. Apparently, I'm responding much more slowly than most, if at all. While it's true that the hairy cells in my peripheral blood have gotten knocked down quite a bit, it doesn't look like my marrow has responded very well, and that's the part that matters.

Next week will be another CBC with flow cytometry. I'm feeling down but not out. In the meantime, I'll keep pushing the rock.