A little bump in the road

 June 19-

Dad had a follow up appointment and some lab work.  The good news is he is feeling great and even made it out to golf a couple times (although these days he is in a cart).  The not good news is his platelets were low and his glucose was high. 

Low platelets is caused from the chemo damaging the bone marrow cells and it is a concern because those are the cells that help clot blood so it increases your risk for bleeding. They will repeat labs next week to see if he needs a platelet transfusion before his next chemo.  

His glucose levels were 450 (I think, I do know they were super high, with normal being below 100) putting him into the diabetic range. This was probably caused by the steroids that they gave before chemo.  The liver also plays a role in regulating blood sugars so the fact that the Merkel cell was all over his liver could also have been a contributor. Normally, your pancreas produces insulin that pulls the sugars from your bloodstream and stores them in your cells. In diabetics, the body either doesn't make enough insulin or the body doesn't use it properly and it causes high blood sugars.  High blood sugars can damage the blood vessels and nerves and increase the risk of a heart attack. So, they put him on a glucose monitor that will pair with his phone to track his sugar levels in addition to an oral medication and also insulin shots. With all that, they will be able to regulate his levels and we can keep moving forward!

It feels like a lot and I'm only the messenger!  But they are getting it figured out and they have lots of support. And we are just enjoying this time where dad is feeling good and able to get out and enjoy his regular activities.