Cells? DNA?

What are these? I bet you can never guess it right.

You may click on the picture and go to my flicker for some clues.

Week 5 Day 5

Everything is so routine to me now, so I began to realize small little things in daily life.

After being a Botak for more than a week, now I realized there is a difference between sleeping with and without hair.

When we are lying on the pillow, our hair actually served as a friction reducer between our head and the pillow, such that we can adjust and turn our head on the pillow easily. Now without hair, my head has a very good traction no the pillow; so when I turn body, I need to lift up my head off the pillow and turn.

Week 5 Day 3

After eating like a glutton for the passed 2 weeks, I've almost forgotten my previous experience of my first 2 chemotherapy. Now then I remember that I couldn't eat much as my digestive system is now retarded. I feel very hungry, but I can only eat bit by bit between 1-2 hours interval.

Overall, the situation is getting better than the passed, somehow my body seems conditioned and get used to it.

Tough Camera

This is my new Olympus Tough 8000 camera. It can be used under water at a depth of 10m and withstand a drop from a height of 2m. That's why it's a Tough camera.

You may find the details of this camera here and a review here.

This is truly a worry-free camera for places and situations which are too risky for my DSLR.

Week 5 Day 1 (3rd GCP Chemo-therapy)

Today I passed the blood test. Even though my Neutrophils is slightly low, it's still safe for me to proceed with the 3rd chemotherapy.

Blood Test Result 18 May 2009

I have tabulated all my blood test results to illustrate the collateral damage of chemotherapy and how my blood components recovered between the chemotherapy intervals.

	26/06/04	11/01/06	04/03/09	31/03/09	27/04/09	11/05/09	18/05/09
Haemoglobin [14.0 – 18.0]	15	15.8	16.3	16.3	14.8	14.7	14.9
WBC Count [4.0 – 10.0]	6.4	5.56	6.35	5.6	2.5	3.4	4.4
Platelet Count [140 – 440]	251	249	308	262	165	381	432
RBC Count [4.5 – 6.3]	5	5.3	5.67	5.37	4.86	4.88	4.91
Haematocrit [38.0 – 52.0] (%)			49.2	47.8	42.7	43.1	43.4
MCV [78.0 – 98.0]	90	88	86.8	88.9	87.9	88.5	88.5
MCH [27.0 – 32.0]	30	30	28.7	30.4	30.5	30.2	30.3
MCHC [32.0 – 36.0]	33	34	33.1	34.2	34.7	34.1	34.3
RBC Distribution Width [10.9 – 15.7] (%)		14.6	13.3	13.5	12.9	13.5	14.2
Mean Platelet Vol [6.3 – 10.1]				7.4	7.5	6.7	6.4
Neutrophil [40 – 75] (%)	42	46.94	45	50.8	42	40.6	37.8
Lymphocyte [15 – 41] (%)	45	36.69	42	37.3	48.4	45.5	40.5
Monocyte [2 – 10] (%)	4	6.47	4	4.8	3	6.8	13.1
Eosinophil [0 – 6] (%)	8	8.81	8	6.4	6	6.6	7.7
Basophil [0 – 1] (%)	0	1.08	1	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.9
Neutrophil Abs [2.0 – 7.5]	2.69	2.61	2.86	2.84	1.05	1.38	1.66
Lymphocyte Abs [1.0 – 3.0]	2.88	2.04	2.67	2.09	1.21	1.55	1.78
Monocyte Abs [0.2 – 0.8]	0.26	0.36	0.25	0.27	0.08	0.23	0.58
Eosinophil Abs [0.04 – 0.44]	0.51	0.49	0.51	0.36	0.15	0.22	0.34
Basophil Abs [0 – 0.1]	0	0.06	0.06	0.04	0.02	0.02	0.04
Urea serum [2.8 – 7.7]		3.5	4	3.5		2
Sodium serum [134 – 145]	139	140		138		136
Potassium serum [3.3 – 4.9]	3.5	4		4.6		4.6
Chloride serum [96 – 108]	103	102		102		100
Bicarbonate serum [19.0 – 31.0]				28.3		27.2
Glucose serum [3.9 – 11.0]	4.72	5	5.1	5.6		6.3
Creatinine serum [63 – 110]	96.8	127		89		86
Protein Total serum [62 – 82]	74	67	83	81		69
Albumin serum [37 – 51]	44	43	46	43		39
Bilirubin Total serum [3 – 24]	8.55	13	14	20		9
Alkaline Phosphatase serum [32 – 103]		47	53	47		52
Alanine Transaminase serum [7 – 36]	18	42	47	31		32
Aspartate Transaminase serum [15 – 33]	23	31	33	26		27

As you can see from the above table, my Neutrophils was the one got hit the most and it was the one contributed to the overall low in White Blood Cell Count. Interestingly my Haemoglobin and Red Blood Cell Count sustained very well at a safe level; the strongest was my Platelet Count, it was hit quite hard too, but it recovered very fast and almost hit the upper safe limit within 3 weeks. It might be due to all sorts of funny or sinful food I ate during the recent break.

The rest of the components are mainly to check for my liver and kidneys function, I do not know what exactly those components. As long as the doctor passed me and let me continue with the treatment, I guess I'm safe.