MDS: Of Blood Counts & FISH Tests

Another Shots Week has been survived. You remember the old joke, "I flew here all the way from California and boy are my arms tired!"?

Well, I've once again endured 14 shots in the upper arms and, no they're not tired, but boy are they sore and itchy.

Yesterday's blood counts:

• Hemoglobin: 11.7
• Platelets: 98,000

These counts are beginning to drive me nuts. Sure, Dr. O says they're supposed to go down while the shots are in progress, and then move back up during the following three, shots-free weeks. Call me an alarmist, but when the counts top out one week at 169,000 and a few weeks later bottom out at 98,000, I find it confusing at best, unsettling at worst.

It's enough to make a person want to bore into his own bone marrow and demand that some molecules in there tell him what the hell is going on in there.

Speaking of confusing, the rest of the genetics report from the bone marrow biopsy came back, and that has really confused me.

As you may recall, the FISH study seemed to indicate that the chromosomes were okay. Now the regular test indicates no change.

Stop! No change is actually a good thing. We know that once the chromosomes show damage, they can't rebuild themselves. So, no change means that we're holding our own and the syndrome isn't drifting towards a worser level of MDS or leukemia.

So, what the hell does the FISH test report mean? Beats me.

It's enough to make one stop contemplating the question "What's the meaning of life?" and devote all waking hours to pondering the meaning of FISH.

Anybody got a worm?