rob's bloodwork results

Hi Everyone: Rob had bloodwork done of Jan.14/08. This was done in preparation for our meeting with the Chemo Dr. whom we meet with on Jan.29. As stated in my last post, he has been extremely fatigued to the point that he gets up for 15 min. and is exhausted. He has been lieing down or sleeping pretty much from when he gets up to when he goes to bed. He is still achy but Tyenol gives him some relief where Advil doesn't. I called the nurse yesterday and just got her call few minutes ago. She says that his hemoglobin is 109 where it should be 130. This is the first time it's dropped. She also said that if it drops below 100 they will want to do a blood transfusion to which he is not too happy about this. She said that sometimes Zometa can do this, but also said that there were a few concerns with the bloodwork results but wanted to talk to the oncologist before telling him what they were. Also before any thought of starting chemo, his hemoglobin has to be up. I guess this would explain the fatigue. We are confused about a couple of things and maybe someone out there has gone through this and can help. I thought that if your white blood cell count dropped this would cause problems, but i don't understand the red cells dropping. Is this common when on Zometa or if you've had radiation? As you can imagine we are both worried now for the weekend since her saying there are some concerns with some of the bloodwork but wouldn't tell us what else. As I'm sure most of you do, when told something or you don't feel well, you automatically think it's due to your cancer and that maybe it's spread. When they did his regular bloodwork for his Zometa last week it showed no problems with his kidney or liver function. Can the low red blood cell count mean that he is now haveing problems with those organs. He has no trouble urinating. I think I look at him too much because I can't tell the difference between pale and yellowish coloring in his face. Any information would be very much appreciated if for nothing else to alleviate some worry until Mon. when the nurse will call again. Sorry I forgot to ask, he has thrown up a few times, but not at regular intervals. Hard to tell if this could just be a flu bug which is going around or more Can low red blood cells also do this?   thanks everyone  lifeline

Lifeline,

When you don't know what's happening it makes things seems so much worse - like walking around with blinders on.

Ask Rob his reasons for not wanting a transfusion.  They may be based on fear which nowadays is not necessary. 

Listen to Swim, she knows what she's talking about, really.

Monday will be here either way...I wish you both peace.

Susan