Hope’s Journey – Week 4

We hit a little bump in the road with Hope’s chemotherapy this week.  Bloodwork is always done before the chemotherapy. Yesterday they discovered that he has a condition called Leukopenia, which means that his white blood cells are too low.  This is caused from the chemotherapy he has already received.

From the reading I’ve done, the white blood cells were described as the soldiers of the body’s immune system.  When they are too low the immune system is weakened and there is a greater risk of infection.

So Hope was sent home with some antibiotics to help prevent “any opportunistic bacterial infections.”  He is also still taking prednisone, although at a much lower dose.  He has one more week to go and he’ll be done with the prednisone, we hope.  Next week they will test his blood again and if his white count is up he will receive another chemotherapy treatment.

The photo used with this blog was taken earlier this week.  As you can see, he is looking good.  He’s alert, barking at us when he wants something or when he just wants to talk, and is able to go up and down the stairs without help.  We are thankful for all of these things.