Crisis Averted

David’s abdominal pain has lessened, which is a relief to all of us, especially to him. Counting the rows on the table below, I note that we’ve come to MGH for 60% of the days in December.

Below are his lab results. Every time you see the white blood cell count go down, it is because of hydroxyurea. [I’ve described that drug in my December 18^th post, “17 Come (Mon)day”.]

I’ve added a column: ‘Absolute Neutrophils’. These are the ‘good’ white blood cells that are mature and can fight infection, so the higher the number, the better his immune system might be. There’s one big caveat: these blood tests cannot measure exactly how many of these neutrophils are functioning properly.

Of course, things may go south before that, but for today, David is alive.

Date of Blood Draw (CBC)	White Blood Cell Count	Percentage Blasts in circulation	Absolute Neutrophils
24-Nov-14	21.94	55.0%
1-Dec-14	90.36	64.5%
2-Dec-14	91.51	76.0%
3-Dec-14	95.27	72.0%
4-Dec-14	76.39	75.0%
5-Dec-14	42.78	72.0%
8-Dec-14	8.20	59.0%	0.55
10-Dec-14	3.84	44.3%	0.13
12-Dec-14	6.19	54.0%	0.25
15-Dec-14	17.88	55.7%	0.79
18-Dec-14	38.56	67.0%	0.39
19-Dec-14	35.24	68.0%	1.40
20-Dec-14	27.57	55.8%	0.96