My First Blood Draw after Four Days on Dasatinib (Sprycel)

So, I was a good girl and listened to my doctor and have been taking 140 mg of Sprycel for four days, “In Protest”. Today will be my second blood draw since leaving the hospital. The first blood draw was one week ago and my white blood cells were 45,300; normal range is between 4,000 and 10,000. Considering that they were 382,000 only two weeks ago, I have made a remarkable dent in them!

Now, if you are anything like me and you know that you are running a race and what your goal is; you are anxious to see your results. I knew where my blood count stood one week ago, and I want to know how my body is responding to my new medication and I want to know NOW! I find it terribly frustrating that you cannot receive your test results until the “powers of be”, allow you to do so. I called my doctor’s office and was told that the results were in, but I had to wait for the doctor or nurse to call me back; THEN they could fax the results to me. Of course, this did not happen right away. I actually had to wait until morning and call them back again. This time, I told the receptionist that I would wait on hold until someone could speak to me. Amazingly that happened quickly; the nurse practitioner got right on the phone, apologized and gave me my results. Funny how YOUR test results and medical records are “Top Secret”, viewed only by eyes other than your own!

My white cell count had dropped to 8,600; way below the previous week of 45,300. It was in the normal range; however, my platelets had also dropped to 83 and were below normal. (This explained the easy bruising.) My red cells were hanging in there just right at the bottom of the “normal” scale at 3.34. My doctor viewed this as a good sign; I was a bit concerned because of how quickly they had dropped from 45,300 to 8,600. I still felt that 140 mg of Sprycel was just too high of a dose for me. I have four more days before I meet my new doctor. I am anxious to see what she has to say.