On Monday I came to work feeling fine and dandy. By the end of the day I was sneezing my nose off and my throat was on fire. As of last night it had migrated into my lungs (coughing) and has done a good job of making my head feel like I'm underwater. Considering all of this, it's amazing how good I feel! I know that must sound odd, but usually even small colds bust my butt for days at a time. Sometimes I can hardly function and I'm nothing but miserable. Aside from the fact that its annoying, I don't really feel all that bad. I haven't had a fever, either. I guess because my overall health is getting better (the anemia is being handled) I feel better, in general, and can handle a teenty tiny little cold like any normal person. So, yay for me being sick but not too sick! LOL

Dr's office called and my blood-iron saturation jumped from 5% (very low) to 85% (pretty high!!) What does this mean? Well, it means, first of all, that I don't have to get the last two IV iron treatments I was scheduled for. It means that 2 treatments did the job of 4 (at least for now). It also means that I am starting to feel better and that my anemia is really being handled. However, my hematocrit dropped from 40 to 34.6. This won't be a problem because I've skipped my last two Procrit shots and now I will just start them up again. The doc had previously instructed me to stop so the hematocrit would stay in the 35 - 38 range (40 is too high) so its simply a matter of tweaking the process to get the dose of Procrit correct - enough to stimulate my body to make RBCs but not over stimulate so that I have too many. I don't have any of my other labs yet, but these have been the two things we've had our attention on lately. ... and, as a side note, because I don't have to get the additional 2 iron treatments I have less time to 'make up' at work... and I will get VALENTINES DAY off as my next Friday off!!!

Had my second IV Iron treatment yesterday. Went well, nothing to report, no change noted. Today I have a doctor's appointment. We'll see what he says about this high blood pressure thing. I'm almost certain it's from the Procrit shots... its about time they had me start using less. Usually when the hematocrit comes up to a certain level they lower the dose of the Procrit. I'm still on my original high dose so this is what I think is causing the high blood pressure. It has been better over the last few days, though. Off to do a bit of work before I leave for my appointment.

I took a water pill last night to pull some of the excess fluid out of my body - trying to lower my blood pressure. It worked temporarily. Before I went to bed (and took the pill) I weighed 109 and this morning I weighed 103 after getting up about a thousand times to pee in the night. My blood pressure was down to 127/30 which is way better than it has been lately. However, it seems to have been a temporary fix... I have a headache again and my blood pressure feels high. Can't

Ugh. Another day, another headache.

One popeye IV iron treatment down... three more to go.

Today I start my IV iron treatments - 3 hours, once a week for the next 4 weeks. I have to go and sit at a cancer center among sick people getting chemotherapy and get iron dripped into my blood from an IV. I don't like being around sick people, but there is one thing it does for me... It makes me very thankful that I have what I do and that I'm not dying (at least not right away). I plan to start reading "The Hobbit" while I'm there (what else can I do for 3 hours sitting there?!) I read this book when I was in maybe fourth or fifth grade so I don't really remember much of it. One of my goals for this year is to read all of the Lord of the Rings books before seeing the last LOTR movie at the end of the year. I'm almost done reading "From a Buick 8" by Stephen King. Ken gave it to me for Christmas and I've been slowly chipping away at it. I don't have nearly as much time to read as I wish I did, but I try to read a little every day. There are so many more Stephen Kings that I have left to read, even though I've read maybe 30 so far (I've lost count). I also have a headache from my high blood pressure today. My blood pressure has been going up steadily since beginning the Procrit injections (its a known side effect) and so far the addition of Cozaar hasn't really helped to keep it under control. I'm hoping the doctor will up my dose or something because the last time my blood pressure got out of control (five years ago) I ended up with migraines about once a week. Don't wanna do that again...

Whoa! My hematocrit (blood count) jumped from 28 to 40! My iron is still in the dumps - only 5% saturation (it should be between 25-42%). I'm scheduled for my first IV Iron treatment on Thursday for three hours. I will receive this for four weeks in a row. But the best part is my hematocrit. Now I should start feeling better soon as I'm no longer so anemic!

... is better, at least I can manage to function. Got to work OK without getting sick. Now I'm just trying to catch up.

Today I am sick. This is why there have been no entries from me today... I got up and tried to go to work. Had to pull over on the way there and throw up about four times. Decided it was in my best interest to go home and go to bed. One amusing thing - as I sat in the front seat throwing up out of my open door, Alek sat in the backseat and clapped his hands and said "Yay! Yay!" Nice to know that when I'm sick I've got my very own cheering section :) I will be better tomorrow. I don't believe I have the flu, just something wrong with the "way things work" in my body. I have good days and bad, this one, obviously, was bad. The only thing that makes me angry is this "sort of behavior" from my body does a darn good job of slowing me down. And I hate being slowed down. It cramps my style. *sigh* I am already feeling better, just very weak from lack of being able to keep anything down and dehydrated from losing water.