Jovee's ANC dropped from 2475 to 372 over the last 24 hours. Just to explain it to myself better and in easy 1st grader terms, ANC stands for absolute neutrophil count.
Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell. Neutrophils serve as the primary defense against infections by destroying bacteria in the blood. Hence, Jovee is now more susceptible to bacterial infections. When your counts drop below 500, you're considered neutropenic and considered to be at risk for severe infection.
So the chemotherapy is designed to white out the white blood cells and when the counts are low we know that the chemotherapy is working. In theory, since it's wiping out the white blood cells, it's supposed to wipe out Jovee's neuroblastoma cancer cells.
Doctor today said that with this combination of chemo, universally all kids have been shown to be neutropenic for 10 to 14 days. So for almost 2 weeks, starting today, she won't have an immune system. Scary.
We moved to a different room, room 3297. This section of the floor is for transplant patients only. There's 2 other kids here that are getting either a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. They keep this area super duper clean. I'm glad.
Yesterday, on my way to the Seattle Auto Auction, I was listening to a Christian talk show. Here's a good summary of what I learned. He said if you want to get on my good side, be good to my kids. If you want to get on your father in laws good side, take care of his daughter, your wife. So If you want to get on Heavenly Father's good side, be good to his sons and daughters. If I want to get on my Heavenly Father in laws good side, do a great job taking care of Jeannine. Just a different way of looking at things. Made me want to strive a little harder to be good to everyone, Heavenly Father's kids.
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