Medical badass, at least on my terms

One of the side-effects of chemo is that it knocks down your white blood cell counts, and if the count is too low, your next session gets delayed. That’s what happened to me last week—what was supposed to be my second session last Tuesday got put off until yesterday.

Such a thing is pretty common but doesn’t happen to everybody. So now that the docs know it happens to me, I had two options . . . go back to the doctors office the day after chemo for a white cell booster shot, or get a preloaded shot I could give myself.

I opted for the latter and gave myself a shot today. Obviously the convenience of not going into the doctor’s office play a role, but the bigger motivation for doing it myself was something from when I was a kid—namely the dozens, maybe hundreds of times I saw my grandfather, a diabetic, check his blood sugar and inject himself with insulin. I figured if he could do that a couple times a day, every day, for decades, I can poke myself a measly ten times between now and the end of chemo.

Plus now I get to have a little plastic biohazard trash bin in my apartment, heh.


  • http://jadepark.wordpress.com/ Jade Park

    You *are* a badass. I had to have lovenox shots for awhile–and my husband chased me around the house 2x a day until I agreed to take the shot…and then it was another 15 minutes of me crying and pleading until the shot actually happened. Of course I could NOT give them to MYSELF!

    But back to you–man, I hope you don’t have to take them much longer and keep the courage!

  • http://jadepark.wordpress.com Jade Park

    You *are* a badass. I had to have lovenox shots for awhile–and my husband chased me around the house 2x a day until I agreed to take the shot…and then it was another 15 minutes of me crying and pleading until the shot actually happened. Of course I could NOT give them to MYSELF!

    But back to you–man, I hope you don’t have to take them much longer and keep the courage!

  • Heidi

    Hey Andrew,
    I had so much fun reading your stuff, I recommended it to Jennie…she’ll get to it tomorrow. It’s bedtime in Michigan now. Sleep well, dear.
    Heidi

  • http://idunno Heidi

    Hey Andrew,
    I had so much fun reading your stuff, I recommended it to Jennie…she’ll get to it tomorrow. It’s bedtime in Michigan now. Sleep well, dear.
    Heidi

  • Jamie

    My god. I haven’t visited Fungible in a few months. Imagine my surprise when I read your post on 7/8 and then worked up from there… Please take care. Sounds like things are getting better.

  • Jamie

    My god. I haven’t visited Fungible in a few months. Imagine my surprise when I read your post on 7/8 and then worked up from there… Please take care. Sounds like things are getting better.