Oh, Things Aren't Good

Blood test results are back. White blood cell count is down, which is the first time that's happened except for the first week or 2 after adriamycin (last dose was over 3 weeks ago). Worse, red blood is down to 29 (36 is normal), and it was 34 on Friday. This is kind of what it looked like just before xmas, except xray on Friday didn't show any fluids in chest. Also not good is that there is some (new word for the day-- sponsored by the letter A--acanthocytes--indicators in the blood that there's damage to red blood cell membranes, which can sometimes happen during cancers especially of this nasty hemangiocrud type.

So he seems to have some microbleeding going on somewhere, but where & how much & can we do anything about it? We'll go back in tomorrow for another blood test and then have the radiologist do a thorough ultrasound of his bod, especially his abdomen, to see whether there are indicators of the cancer spreading there. Might not tell us anything, but it's the best diagnostic tool we've got at the moment.

Meanwhile, vet says go ahead & give him all the chicken he'll eat. "Make him happy," she said. So I'm cooking up a big batch more and we'll go sit & do some tricks & see how much more he'll chow down. [Yup, just gave him some, plus put chicken-boiling water on what was left of his breakfast, and he was very excited about all of that!]

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