Friday 2nd April 2010

Luke's had a bit of a flat week. His back from a combination of the lumbar puncture and the injections into his backside has been really sore and stiff. He can't seem to find a comfortable position. On Monday Luke saw Dr Dipti and discussed his back and how he is walking/shuffling like an old man. She sent him for an ultrasound to see how the haematoma was going. It came back okay. Unfortunately this is just one of the side effects of the treatments.

As I predicted last week - last Saturday Luke became neutropenic. He has hit his lowest levels these last few days and really is feeling pretty lousy and quite nauseous. He is spending most of his time in bed watching TV and dozing on and off.

His blood levels for the week are:
Haemaglobin: 27/3 - 99 /28/3 - 96 /29/3 - 101 /30/3 - 93 /31/3 - 84 /1/4 - 85
White Cells: 27/3 - 1.2 /28/3 - 1.2 /29/3 - 1.2 /30/3 - 0.9 /31/3 - 0.7 /1/4 - 0.6
Platelets: 27/3 - 26 /28/3 - 20 /29/3 - 24 /30/3 - 26 /31/3 - 43 / 1/4 - 94
Neutrophils: 27/3 - 0.4 /28/3 - 0.26 /29/3 - 0.26 /30/3 - 0.1 /31/3 - 0.04 /1/4 - 0.02

AS a reminder for normal levels:
Haemaglobin - 130-170
White Cell Count - 3.7 - 11
Platelets - 150-400
Neutrophils - 2 - 7.5

So as you will see Luke's levels are really low. His Haemaglobin has dropped again the last few days after transfusions - so we are on standby that if they get under 80 we will need to go into hospital for some more transfusions.
Luke had platelets given to him on the 31/3 before his last lumbar puncture for this round. Yeah!! This lumbar puncture ran a lot more smoothly than the last one as they went higher up in the spine.
As you will also see Luke's neutrophils are almost non existent. So he is very prone to picking up any infection.
All of these blood levels combined are what is making Luke so lethargic and really not too good this week.

Yesterday we had to go to the hospital for a special blood test for the protein levels. We came back home but got called in that afternoon for an injection. His Antithrmbin III was 64% - it should be 70-145. If left untreated there is a chance of blood clots going to the brain.

Today we went in for his last asparaginase injection into his backside (for a few weeks anyway). So Luke is pleased there are no more lumbar punctures and "bee stings" for a while - and his back may recover soon.

As I mentioned in the last blog - we had my Aunty Mal and Uncle Les come to visit from the UK. They have had a busy few days with Mum & Dad going around sightseeing in Canberra. I would like to have joined them during the day but with Luke we were unable to. They came over Tuesday night and had dinner at our place and then Murray and I went out for dinner with the four of them on Wednesday while Luke's Nan watched over the kids. Mum & Dad are now driving Mal & Les to the Blue Mountains overnight, followed by visiting Kevin in Newcastle and then going to my brother, Stephen's place in Gosford. Mal and Les will then travel by train to Sydney where they will have 4 days sightseeing and then up to Port Douglas for the last part of their journey. Hopefully the weather stays good for them.

We have 4 days of no hospital visits!!! All being well. As I said earlier we may be called in for blood transfusions but we will keep our fingers crossed that we can have a few lazy pyjama days!! The nurse will be coming to take daily blood at our house.

Hope everyone has a nice break over Easter and that you don't eat too much chocolate!! I'll be in touch next Friday.