Lab, Doctor, McDonald's, Hospital

So this morning we went to see Sheila's Oncologist Dr. DiStefano. They took her blood at the lab and her platelet count was way down to 600. The doctor said it should be about 100,000. So that means another trip to the hospital to get an infusion of platelets. Platelets are the component of blood that makes your blood able to clot and without a good platelet count even a minor cut or scrape or mouth sore could turn into something serious. He also told us that because her white count was also low, and we knew it would be coming down after the second round of chemo, that she would need to come to the clinic every day until Friday to have an IV of antibiotics. Dr. DiStefano also told us that her 3rd round of chemo would not be for a couple more weeks to enable her counts to come back up.
He also informed us that if all goes as good as its has until now that she should be done with all chemo treatments by the end of the year! That sure seems like a long time when you are taking it day to day!
Here is Sheila's schedule for the rest of this week:

Tuesday - Arlington Cancer Center- 1PM infusion of antibiotics

Wednesday - Arlington Memorial Hospital - 9AM check up of arm with Dr. Bower, surgeon
Arlington Cancer Center - Anytime - infusion of antibiotics

Thursday - Arlington Cancer Center - Anytime - infusion of antibiotics

Friday - Arlington Cancer Center - 10:30 Lab for blood work
11:30 Dr. DiStefano
Anytime - infusion of antibiotics

Today's cover shot is of Orcas (Killer Whales) just off Sheila's kayak bow. They had shot right under our kayaks after chasing all the seals up on the small islands of rocks in the Misty Fjords of Alaska. We has been sitting in our boats watching as this small pod of transient orcas were going right up on the rocks trying to pick off the terrified seals! The big male had a dorsal fin about six feet out of the water! We learned that day that these were 'transient' orcas that ate ONLY mammals while other pods were 'resident' orcas and ONLY ate fish. There is also another group called 'offshores' and scientists don't really know what they eat...we were hoping it wasn't kayakers!!!