A Bump in the Road!

We laughingly took this picture yesterday, while we were on our walk...saying that we would file it away to use in the blog for "the next bump in the road." Never did I dream when I took it that I would be using it today. But...the drug study nurse came out after his lab work was done and told us that Woody wouldn't be starting the chemo drugs today as his blood platelet level had dropped below the allowable number for the drug study. The blood platelet count has to be 100 or above and Woody's was 95 (which is not seriously low). They expect that in the next couple of days it will have risen enough for him to start Cycle 4 next week. They are supposed to be calling in orders to Harton Hospital (our local hospital) for Woody to have blood work done there on Friday. Harton will (hopefully) get the results to Woody's Vanderbilt drug study team by Friday afternoon so they can call us and tell us whether he is to come in on Monday.

They explained that the way chemo works these days is when something like this happens due to the drugs being taken (and they are sure that is what caused the platelet count to drop) that they now let the body recover on its own without the drugs. They used to just keep on with the chemo...but often that just made matters worse and the chemo patient would just get sicker.

Woody feels fine. We were rather surprised by the news...as were the nurses...they were expecting him to get started on the 4th cycle today...but a bump in the road occurred and we all will wait patiently till he can begin the next cycle. Dr. Sosman told us today that he had just seen a patient who they were still waiting to get him started on his 2nd cycle and it had been 8 weeks.

Woody and I got to talking on the way home. One of the comments made by the nurse was that perhaps the level would even be up by tomorrow...and that should have been "day one" after the last cycle since the last cycle started on a Tuesday due to Labor Day. So today was really "day 28"...so...maybe they should have made the appointment for tomorrow...and then "perhaps" the platelet count would have been ok to continue...well, no use speculating on that now...we will wait and see what Friday's lab work shows.

I asked Woody if he was disappointed in not being able to start cycle 4 today. He said that the main thing that he was disappointed in was having to make another trip to Vanderbilt next Monday! (Of course if his platelet count hasn't come up we won't be making the trip that day.)

FYI...the nurse explained that the platelets have to do with the clotting factor in our blood. Again, Woody's are not dangerously low...just below the level allowed to go on with the drug study till they are at 100 or more.