Today's chemotherapy postponed.

The 14th dose of chemotherapy which was due today, has been postponed to Monday, because of the low white blood cell (WBC) count in my blood :( (The count stands at a miserable 1.44 against the reference range of 4 - 11.) My doctor thus suggested me taking a break of three days before my blood is tested for the WBC count on Monday.

A right amount of WBC count is very critical in the blood in the sense that WBC offers the power to resist the foreign entities (such as bacteria and virus) from entering into the body and fight against them. A low WBC count might in fact make the body susceptible to infections. A couple of weeks back, when the same situation occurred for me, my doctor made me admitted into the hospital for five days injecting Neupogen injection every day to increase the blood counts. Since the constant and frequent use of Neupogen is not recommended, she now asks me to let the body to pick up the WBC count by itself just through its normal mechanism.

I am a bit disappointed today since there will be a break in the chemotherapy protocol which will definitely have a ripple effect on the whole treatment schedule. I hope my counts will improve by Monday and I will have regular doses of chemotherapy again.