Betcha your doubling rate is lower than mine :-)

[scryer99]

After recent posting on spleen laceration and a weekend ER visit, I spent most of today in scheduling a blizzard of follow-on appointments. First one was with my day-to-day oncology lead. His pet vampires took 10 vials of blood this time (to rerun FISH and flow cytometry etc.)

So then I get a call from my CLL specialist, who says "yep, we need to see you this week, and by the way don't fret too much about the blood results". OK...?

Turns out ALC counts went from 125 two weeks ago, to 130 in ER on Saturday, to... 225 (!) on Monday.

So when they say "the trend is your friend", it's good advice. I've seen some variance but not like that. That's a doubling rate of three days. I don't think I'm going to worry too much about this one.

Current theory is that the pile of steroids they threw at my spleen over the weekend has kicked loose some artifacts in my blood. Since this has also spiked my potassium (K) counts, they are bringing me back in tomorrow to rerun, as there's a chance of triggering heart arrhythmia at that level.

That wasn't even the most disheartening result in my weekend test regimen. I have to say as a man, it's never fun to see in your CT report:

"Visualized Reproductive Organs: Unremarkable"

Rough week. Onward.

[Shedman]

”Lacerated spleen” Pah!!

“.. Unremarkable.” Ouch.. That always stings a bit 🤣

Hope things proceed in steady and unremarkable ways from here.

My count went up from circa 30 to 170 in space of 2 weeks.. this followed steroids during pulmonary embolism.. was to be expected, but surprised me at the time.

[CycleWonder]

Glad to see your humor bone was unaffected by all this!

[MisfitK]

I laughed at the "unremarkable":). I had some of those on my CT, too, this month. All this "normal" and then, the report had to change to "unremarkable" and I'm like, why? Of course, I also had the strange, but that's when they wrote things about how screwed up I am, but then called them "stable" from my last test

Sending thoughts and prayers and hugs that your current hospital stay is short and your CLL gets put back in abeyance asap.

[Ghounds]

Ooof. Unremarkable reproductive organs. They really know how to kick a man when he's down don't they...

I hope you can get back on a more even keel soon, you've had a worrying time recently.

[Thundercat2]

Wow, that's a rough end to a tough week. But I laughed out loud if that's any consolation.

Hope things settle for you now.

[Shedman]

That lands like a dare with me.. hmmn: what would I have to bribe my team to have them write “grotesquely unremarkable” on my consultant report?

I mean, grotesque is a given here .. 😂

[but I rail at ‘unremarkable’ 🤷‍♂️]

[Pacificview]

You made me laugh, thank you. That unremarkable comment. Great to find humor in our circumstances. Hope you have recovered from the tear in your spleen. Has your spleen returned to normal size yet? I had no idea the spleen could be such a bugger. Pain, weight loss, feeling like crap all in a days work for an unhappy spleen!

[scryer99 in reply to Pacificview]

well… after 60+ days on zanubrutinib it’s down a bit. Still swollen but only 6cm or so below ribcage instead of the 10cm it was at treatment start.

[Pacificview in reply to scryer99]

Well, you were starting from a pretty darn big spleen! Glad its coming down, wish it were faster for you. Sounds like you will get there soon!