A person, can develop a cold

The title of this post is courtesy of the musical Guys and Dolls. No, I didn't see that one on Broadway. Been a while since that one was playing. I saw a spring performance of it at my high school during my senior year. A number of my classmates took part. I remember that line in one of the songs. It felt apt given how my second week of cycle 15 progressed.

I did power through the post-chemo weekend pretty well, with surprisingly minimal crashing. What stayed with me were traces of the cold that had initially delayed me. Though most of the symptoms were gone when I'd started the cycle, there was a small residual cough. It never went away, and by the end of the weekend, it started becoming more frequent. I also started feeling weak and feverish. For three days, my temperature hovered around 37.5 C, and then it broke the 38 C threshold, meaning it was hospital time. The blood cultures turned up no bacterial infections, but a nasal swab revealed rhinovirus, so yes, it was that cold of mine making a comeback when my immune system was down.

I was in there until Sunday, when my blood counts began their comeback, one day behind schedule compared to cycles 3, 6, 9, and 12. Maybe it would have been longer -- Dr. Meyers, based on experience with past patients, worried that my counts might take an entire week to come up, and had me receive daily immune-boosting shots while I was inpatient. He was even thinking of continuing them this week, but then my blood counts on Monday morning turned out to be very robust, so that did not end up happening. I'm going back in now for another round of blood counts, and then another round of scans. If they turn out good, we can begin planning the endgame of my treatment. Should be only two more months now if everything's on schedule!