Many of you who have been close to someone with cancer probably already know this, but I thought I would share it with the rest of you since it was new to me.
While Oliver is in the hospital, they have been doing a Complete Blood Count (CBC) on him every day. This involves a blood draw which has become amazingly easier since the central line was installed. Once we go home, we will be drawing the blood ourselves and getting his counts on a weekly basis for quite a while. These blood counts are our new key indicator of Oliver's health as it relates to his chemotherapy and his immune system.
So we have been getting a total crash course in hematology and how it relates to chemotherapy. Basically there a few key blood count numbers that we need to look at, one of which is his Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) level. Neutrophils are the type of white blood cell responsible for fighting bacteria and is the most important one when considering his medical care during chemotherapy. If they are too low, he can easily become very sick from the bacteria all around us that our bodies easily deal with every day. This is the most life threatening part of leukemia treatment, aside from the cancer itself.
There are also other counts that are important such as his hemoglobin levels and platelet levels, which are both very important to normal body functions, but are harmed during chemotherapy.
Being as I have an affinity for numbers and charts and analysis, I naturally started charting his key blood counts. I even linked one of the charts I have to this blog if you would like to keep up with his ANC. You can find the chart on the "Oliver's ANC chart" link to the right.
