Cycle four, day 10

Wednesday was a scheduled lab check day and as well, we had an appointment with the doctor. I went to Phlebotomy for blood work at noon and then we went to Hematology to wait for the doctor. In the end we saw her Physician's Assistant instead.

The PA checked me over and said I was perfectly on track. My blood counts are exactly where they want them at this stage in my treatment. I had an injection of Neulasta to help the white blood cells grow, as they are expected to drop further in the next couple of weeks.

We learned that Roswell does not do maintenance Rituxan treatments after chemo as my local hospital would have done. Instead I will go for a CT Scan every three months for two years to track any recurrence of the disease. After that I will go every six months.

We were all done by 1:15pm. Because it was after lunch and we had not eaten, we decided to go to the hospital cafeteria for lunch. I must say, as cafeterias go it seems quite nice to me. There is a salad bar, and daily specials of soup, pizza, grilled gourmet sandwiches and a hot meal like fish or chicken. I usually have the soup special and it is always tasty. The water is free and lunch came in at under $9.00 for both of us.

I have to go for lab checks every week now as they want to watch me closely for any drop in the white blood cells or neutrophils. We did this last month too and it seemed tiresome, but the PA assured us that it is necessary.