I continue to learn more than I ever hoped to know about cancer. And, as Bev said in her blog:
I'm too busy for this cancer stuff....
Of course as my sister Marilyn says, NO ONE would sign up for this.
See all the empty spaces on the sign- up sheet?!
Tomorrow I have another blood test to see if my numbers have improved since the trio of Neupogen shots. Sure hope so! We all know (something!) about white blood cells and platelets, but here's Wikipedia's take on the meaning of the ANC number:
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) is a measure of the number of neutrophil granulocytes (also known as polymorphonuclear cells, PMN's, polys, granulocytes, segmented neutrophils or segs) present in the blood. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fights against infection. The ANC is calculated from measurements of the total number of white blood cells (WBC), usually based on the combined percentage of mature neutrophils (sometimes called "segs," or segmented cells) and bands, which are immature neutrophils.
Can't say I understand much more than I did before, when I asked the oncologist and she said it's a component of the white blood cells... that's pretty much all I understand now. Good thing none of that will be on my blood test tomorrow! <G>
At least I do understand the numerical component:
The normal range for ANC is 1.6 - 9.3
Before I started chemo, my number was a respectable 3.0
After one round it had plummeted to 0.7
To be 'eligible' for chemo it must be at least 1.0 (still below normal)
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