28 days later…

Though I am a fan of post-apocalypse movies, and have always thought of myself as a natural survivor if ever faced with this scenario, especially as many zombie movies/TV series seem to start with someone waking up in a deserted hospital, I am actually referring to my first 28 days in hospital and not the zombie flick.

This Wednesday marked a month since my diagnosis and today (Friday 11th December) I am three weeks  into phase 1 of the Induction treatment. When I think about 4 weeks and what I would usually have done in both my personal and work life over that time, it seems crazy to think that much time has passed in here. This past month has really flown by, which is a good thing I guess. I’ve had visitors pretty much everyday, which has been amazing, as I get to see my favourite people and it really helps break up the day. It also usually results in a very welcome break from the hospital food! Though after almost breaking the scales in my last weigh in, I should probably lay off the bacon butties for a while (belly has well and truly got me and I’m pretty sure steroid face is making an appearance).

This week was a little up and down. Monday and Tuesday I was feeling OK, a little tired only. Wednesday I pretty much just lay on my bed all day feeling a bit sorry for myself, being very poor company. I had been given Asparaginase (chemo drug) late the night before, and like last time I had it, I felt like I’d be hit by a bus the next day.  This afternoon I had my last lot of Vincristine and Daunorubicin (REDRUM) for phase 1. I will therefore have a break from any Chemotherapy until the start of phase 2, when that is I am not sure yet, I believe it will depend on my blood counts for the next two weeks. When they talk about my blood counts, they predominantly refer to neutrophils, haemoglobin levels, and platelets. I thought I’d provide some information as to what each of those are and a little more about ALL, and the organisation Bloodwise, just to keep you all in the know…

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) – is a form of cancer that affects blood-producing cells in the bone marrow. The affected cells are white blood cells. Lymphoblasts are the immature cells that should develop into Lymphocytes in your bone marrow, which have a vital role within your immune system. Your body creates new Lymphocytes all the time, however when people have ALL this process goes wrong, with the Lymphoblasts reproducing too quickly without maturing, these are known as immature blast cells (Leukaemia cells if you will). This process means there is no room for the normal blood cells to be made and so your body doesn’t have enough white blood cells, red blood cells, or platelets to work properly. ALL is the only Leukaemia that affects a significantly higher population of children than adults, and when it does affect adults it is usually younger adults or those over 75 years.

Blood counts

• Neutrophils (normal range for Caucasian women 1.7 to 6.1) – a type of white blood cell that helps fight off infection. Chemotherapy results in a state known as neutropenic (i.e. having extremely low levels of neutrophils and therefore you are at a high risk of infection). Mine are currently sitting around 0.2.
• Haemoglobin (Hb) (normal range for Caucasian women 11.8 to 14.8) – is a protein used by red cells to distribute oxygen to other tissues and cells in the body. Having extremely low haemoglobin is associated with Anaemia, resulting in symptoms of shortness of breathe, increased HR, and fatigue amongst other things. I have now had 4 matched blood transfusions, these really help combat the negative symptoms of low haemoglobin – so keep on donating!!
• Platelets (normal range for Caucasian women 143 to 332) – a component of your blood that prevents tissue damage and bleeding via clotting. The risk of bleeding and bruising is a lot higher when your platelets are low.

Finally, I wanted to mention Bloodwise – ‘A blood cancer charity beating blood cancer since 1960’. Bloodwise is the new name for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research charity. Their website is really useful if you want to learn anymore about blood cancers and the research they are involved in.

Here are some facts from their website:

• Our mission is to stop people dying from blood cancer, to make patients’ lives better, and to stop blood cancers happening in the first place.
• We won’t stop until every single person with blood cancer survives and no one dies from blood cancer again. 100% survival, nothing less.
• When we started, almost no children survived Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, the most common childhood cancer, now 9 in 10 survive.
• Our ground-breaking Trials Acceleration programme is bringing new treatments to more patients, more quickly and more cost effectively.
• Since the 60s, Bloodwise has invested £500 million into research.

To get involved and see what events and challenges Bloodwise are running in 2016 visit here.

Hope you enjoyed your quick lesson into ALL and blood counts, you know what they say; “everyday is a school day’.