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Living with lung cancer - Introduce yourself & come say hi
Lung Cancer | Last Active: Jan 22 8:18am | Replies (1013)Comment receiving replies
Saw my dictir this morning. My Neutrophols are only .8! He us skipping Chemo this week, will recheck blood work on Tuesday, Chemo next week for 3 days the 5 days of Granix injections. Going to try and schedule me to get a port put in (shudder) then a PET scan. I was going to ask him how he thought I was doing but guess he can't answer that until after the scan. Asked him about the pains I am getting and he didn't know why. Had pain in my cgest and by my left arm pit this morning. Hard to believe he has done this fir so many years and has no answers. To,d him I found a couple of posts where people with this LCNELC are also getting Keytruda or Opvido but he says that is immunotherapy and he and Wakelee are wary of trying that on me because, this undiagnosed, they are sure I have some immune probkems going on since before this cancer diagnosis. Guess it is a wait and see. Wish he were more talkative.
Replies to "Saw my dictir this morning. My Neutrophols are only .8! He us skipping Chemo this week,..."
Get the port. It will save you from having to have a vein accessed for each infusion. 10 years ago I had one put in for breast cancer chemo, then had it removed a year later. It was such an easy procedure. Then had it replaced last year for lung cancer. It is an easy operation, never even think of it still being there. Am keeping it this time around & having it flushed every 6-8 weeks to keep it in good working order. That way the nurses can draw the blood tests from the port with no problems. So easy & totally painless.
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@margot69, I can understand that you're concerned about low white blood cells. It is common for chemotherapy to lower blood count levels. White blood cells are responsible for fighting infection. So when they are low, you have to be careful to avoid infection. This is something you should be cautious about, but don't let it overly worry you. Here are some good tips on reducing your risk of infection while on chemotherapy:
- How to Lower Your Infection Risk During Chemotherapy https://www.verywellhealth.com/neutropenia-and-chemotherapy-2249337
As you and Merry have both experienced, white blood cells are always checked before the next chemo appointment to make sure they are high enough to get the next dose of chemo. The white blood cells recover after chemo, but after several chemo treatments, it may take them a little longer to recover. When my dad had to travel to get chemo, he was able to get his blood tested locally the day before to know if the counts were high enough to get chemo.
Is there a nurse on your care team who may be able to help answer questions for you?