The hospital phoned me the day before I was due to start cycle 3 saying I needed to come in for another blood test first thing in the morning. So after shuffling round arrangements to sort out childcare, my husband and I went in first thing.
The problem was with my neutrophil levels. They should be at least 1.5 (not sure of the units here!) but on Tuesday they were only 0.8. (Pre-chemo my level was 2.2; before chemo#2 it was 1.8, and it is something that gets lower with each cycle so I did wonder whether this would become an issue.)
Often a couple of days can make a big difference to neutrophil levels so it was possible chemo could still go ahead today. However, it was only up to 1.3 so the nurse checked with the consultant and he said not to go ahead with chemo. So it is deferred for a week.
This obviously upsets all our plans - which are always subject to God's will - childcare and my husband's leave needs to be re-arranged - but it's quite nice to have another week of feeling well! It will give the veins in my arm a chance to properly heal - perhaps! And hopefully my neutrophil levels will be well up so that they'll be a bit higher for cycle 4 too.
