First Delay

Timothy went in Friday all set and ready to go for cycle 13’s triple whammy. He was so looking forward to be able to say that he had only 1 triple whammy treatment left to go and since he is on the last break from weekly vincristines, would have only 1 treatment left to go in the whole process. NOT! His white count was too low to proceed. Again the caution about being around large crowds and/or people who may be ill. He was disappointed that he couldn’t just get it over with but he continues to always look for the bright side of things. The upside of it was that he could hang with Michael who was coming home again for the weekend, attend the training session scheduled for the summer employees at Roaring Springs, and attend church on Sunday when Rebecca would be confirmed. Plus he would be feeling pretty good for the weekend. Another upside was that Tim was able to do a photo shoot for the Make-a-Wish Foundation with BSU’s Bronco football coach Peterson. Recognize anyone else in the picture? This is in preparation for a dinner-fundraiser in October.



So we shall see if the week’s extra time is enough for his bone marrow to get going and do its thing. He had been getting Neulasta since cycle 9 and the purpose of that was to fertilize the bone marrow so to speak to make white cells to decrease the amount of time that his white count would be in the critically low area, hence to lower the risk of infection and prevent delays in treatment. Well, I suppose we’re not all that sure it is being as effective as it used to be since he has been hospitalized with fever during the last 2 cycles in spite of receiving Neulasta and it didn’t prevent a delay this time. It looks like his bone marrow is just too worn out now that after the Neulasta runs out it is unable to pick up its job of white cell production and the white count drops. The white count is usually at its highest immediately before a whammy. This time it wasn’t very high and the type of white cells that are part of the body’s army to fight infection was below the threshold limit to go on with the next treatment. He is just out of juice.