11/22/07 IVIG

Well, today was another adventure.

We got to San Diego at 8:45am. We went to the infusion center (which is huge), and because of its size they can do a blood transfusion, which they can't do in LB unless they put you in Memorial. We had originally planned to have a 3 hour IVIG therapy and 2 units of blood. But of course, we knew that would not happen because they first have to take my blood to do a type and cross match (which has taken 6-8 hours), then they have to give me the blood at a rate of 2 hours / unit.

So they said that they wanted me to come back on Friday to get the two units of blood. But of course on our way home, they called us and told me that they will only have one unit on Friday and they will have to get the second unit on Saturday. Our guess is that they have to do another type and cross match on Friday so they can get one more unit for Saturday.

So the plan now is to drive down there on Friday for a 1:30 appt, then stay the night, and get the second unit, if there is such a thing, on Saturday.

I still feel pretty good, with no fatigue or shortness of breath.

We got the blood tests back from this morning and my white count continues to go down (now at 183,000), but my Hemoglobin has dropped from 8.4 to 7.5. This is not critically low, but still way below the NORMAL range and something that has to be dealt with. The hope is that the steroids, the IVIG therapy, and the transfusions will help bring this up and stabilize it. Until that happens I will not have any more chemo. Their guess is that I will not be ready for chemo until sometime in January.

Terry