Sunday: And two steps forward..

After yesterday's rather pathetic blood counts, I'd come to the conclusion that my marrow was all but gone again. There seemed to be no platelet production of my own and the white cell count was only being propped up by the GCSF (stimulating factor).

So it came as a complete surprise when my blood results came back this morning showing a massive increase in WBC, up to 4.7 from 1.6 yesterday. The real stunner was my platelet count. Having had a platelet transfusion yesterday I was expecting it to be around 60 today, but it is a very healthy 100 on the dot. That's better than it was on the day we started chemo. I can only assume that the Goji juice has kicked in. Here's hoping for just a modest drop tomorrow as the transfused platelets die off and my marrow makes a few more of it's own.

With that bit of good news under our belts we went for a walk today and found the Hotel Oberland. It's a bit further away than I thought, about a ten minute walk. However it looks good and the staff are friendly and speak fluent English. So we have booked a room for a few nights starting tomorrow afternoon. We can postpone if anything changes here, like a drop in blood count etc. Dr Glonti tells me that I can start my second cycle of chemo on or about the 13th Sept.

At this stage I think I will stay in Germany until then. Even if I could get an earlier flight than the one booked for the 9th (which is now redundant 4 days before cycle 2), travel time would be over four days return, meaning one third of that time would be spent suffering economy class travel even if I left tomorrow. Just not worth the suffering and the $3000 cost. Sarah will stay to make sure I'm OK until I return to the Klinik for preparation for the second cycle around the 11th Sept.

It's a really hot day outside, around 32C. After walking for thirty minutes to find the Hotel and get back again we are both hot and sweaty, So have taken to the seclusion of our room for the rest of the day.

Karen mentioned that she couldn't look at the Hotel Oberland's website because it was in German. You can translate any webpage into any other language by visiting Google Translate and typing in the address of the website you wish to translate at the bottom of the page.
It's interesting to see the the Hotel does a magic show every saturday night.

Till tomorrow... Ron