The district nurse took 6 attempts/needles to get mums bloods on Thursday. My mum felt sorry for her as the blood was going everywhere but where it should be! If it had been me I think I would have fainted as I'm not too good with needles but typical mum her concern was for the 'poor nurse!'.
Yesterday morning we go up to get ready for mums chemo. At 9am I breathed a sigh of relief as we had not received a phonecall saying mums blood count was low as we had last time wen they'd phoned at 8am. We had breakfast and were just putting on our coats to set off for chemo at 10.10am when the phone rang. Yes you guessed it, it was the chemo unit to say mums blood count was low and she couldn't have her chemo.
When mum came off of the phone she started to cry, something she's not done more than a couple of times since her diagnosis, previously about losing her hair. I felt totally inadequate as there was nothing I could do to make her feel better. She said she just felt fed up as her chemo was dragging on due to the treatment being delayed.
I left a message for Christine, mums CNS, and she phoned back in the afternoon when mum had gone back to bed for a sleep. She said mum needed to be assured that she was doing brilliantly with her treatment and that a lot of younger people only managed 4 of her regime. I know her oncologist told us at the outset she would have between 4 and 6 depending on how her body stood up to it but mum is determined that she will have all 6. Christine said that if mum couldn't have any more now that didn't mean she couldn't have any after a break but mum says she doesn't want that, she just wants to get it done. I don't think she's grasped that treatment could be more long term than she anticipates.
Anyway the plan is that mum will now have her 5th chemo next Friday assuming her bloods are ok. She sees her oncologist the following Thursday when maybe he'll suggest she doesn't have the 6th. If he does I don't know how she'll take it. I suggested she ring Christine and get her to explain but she says she doesn't need to as I've told her what she said but I know she's not convinced that what Christine said is right. I think she feels there must be something wrong because her blood count is not recovering within the 3 weeks.
If anyone reads this and has been in a similar situation as mum, can you post your experience so that I can relay it to mum. I feel that people having to have treatment delayed because of a low blood count is more common than mum thinks? Maybe if she could hear about others who've experienced this but gone on to have their treatment and been ok it might just help her through. She has been so positive so far and I want her to remain so as I feel it's been a contributing factor in her coping so well. She was very down yesterday.
