Thursday, August 31, 2006

Weekly Update Again

It has been another week in what is a repeating two week cycle. Since the blood transfusion last week, my hemoglobin is back to 9.3. It probably was up to about 10.5 after the transfusion and by next Wednesday will be back down to around 8.5 again. Platelets and white cell counts were exactly the same even though I reduced my Anagrelide over the past week. Factor 2 was 16, almost half of the 31 last week, but within range of target 15-25 range. I didn't eat any spinach and fewer greens this week. It is a boring report but good that it is repeatable. Not much, but the frequency of my transfusions has changed in the last year. Then, I was on my third one with about 5 weeks between them.

On the iron storage measure, my ferritin level is 2272 where normal range is 12 to 300 for men and 12 to 150 for women. My doctor is still not concerned and my ferritin has actually gone down some since May. Marilyn's ferritin level is 7 and is getting an iron infusion tomorrow.

I just got back from visiting my mother at the nursing home. She will probably get to return to my sister Lola's house next Tuesday. Once she heard that she could get out if she could get around with a walker, she started moving. Just needed some incentive. Bad news is that she will need a catheter and bag for her urine for the rest of her life. I was also there on Tuesday when we attended an organ concert and sing along. She seemed to enjoy that as much as I did.

I was up at 3am this morning and drove Anna and Andrew to the airport. They traveled with two cats and are safely at Anna's new appartment in Cambridge, MA this evening. Tommorow, they tour MIT and Saturday recover Anna's shipped boxes from Amtrac. Sometime in there they are looking to buy some used furniture since all of Anna's is still back here in our garage. They will rent a ZIP car minivan in order to move this stuff. Andrew will be back home to start his senior year in high school on Tuesday. Anna will be starting her second year of graduate study at Harvard Divinity School.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update.
That ferriton level sounds high.
Does that mean you have rust in your body?
We pray that a MUD can be found for you mini BMT.