Where We are at Today

Allegra's blood counts have started to recover. Yay!!!!!!! This is what we wait for.

Every morning Allegra has blood taken either from her internal lines or has a finger prick.  Many test are performed but the results I eagerly await for are haemeglobin, white cells, platelets and neutrophils.  If her haemeglobin falls below 80 they transfuse, if her platelets fall below 20 they transfuse unless Allegra is to have a procedure.  To date my Little Allegra has had 8 blood transfusions and 10 platelets transfusions.

Haemeglobin  s/be 105-140 yesterday Allegra was 82 and today is 74

White Cells s/be 5.5 - 15.5 yesterday Allegra was 3 and today is 2.8

Platelets s/be 150 - 400 yesterday Allegra was 93 and today is 130

Neutrophils s/be 1 - 5 yesterday Allegra was 0.03 and today again 0.00

So with Allegra now making some of her own cells she is sort of on her way up. This will continue or should continue but I have learned that nothing is certain or "normal", as you can see by her readings.  Just when you think we are moving forward her little body struggles to go all the way and then her blood counts regress.  My little Allegra has proven to not fall into the "normal" category and if there is a 99% surety then my little Allegra will be in that 1 %.  If there is ever a time in our lives that I want her to be normal or common this is it - I want her to be medically normal and common.

We anticipate that her blood counts will be fully recovered by next week, but we do take one day at a time.  You will hear me talk about this a lot, because this is our life - one day at a time. Before they start the cycle 3 of chemotherapy they will do a bone marrow biopsy, an aspirate and trephine. An aspirate is the removal of bone marrow and a trephine is removal of a small core of bone marrow, which is used to assess bone marrow structure.  It was the original trephine that showed the abnormal cells which gave the pathologist, haematologist and oncologist Allegra's diagnosis.

This brings me to tell you about my new worry, concern and anxiety.

Allegra's protocol (chemotherapy plan) is 4 cycles and it suggests she should be in remission after the 2nd cycle of chemotherapy but they continue a further 2 cycles to completely eradicate any possible remaining cells.  This bone marrow biopsy coming up needs to show absolutely no abnormal  cells.  If there is abnormal cells microscopically showing a bone marrow transplant needs to be performed.  I am not going into this as we don't want to go there.

Please put all your positive energies/vibes into zero cancer cells.