Drain the Blood

Every time I'd go in for chemo they'd do a blood draw. I'm not a big fan of needles, but I did okay. What began to scare me were the results. More specifically, my white blood cell count.

As the treatment went on, my white count got lower and lower. That's a problem, because white blood cells fight infection and disease. The lower my count got, the more important it was that I avoid infection and exposure to people who were sick. Luckily, I was undergoing chemo in late summer, so there weren't too many bugs floating around. No rampant flu outbreaks or anything like that. But I still had to wear a mask over my face when I drove home after treatment.

It came to a head in early September. I was at the tail end of chemo, but by then my white cell count was the lowest it had been, and I needed to get the doctor's okay in order to go see the Night Marchers - a band I really liked - in a couple weeks.

With cancer, your goals are often very minor ones. Being able to walk to the end of the driveway to pick up the trash cans on trash day. Taking the dogs to the end of the block, then eventually two blocks when I took them for a walk. All were small victories in the battle.

But the Night Marchers show in the fall was a huge one for me. The band's lead guitarist and singer is John Reis, who has been in multiple awesome bands that have been mathematically and ergonomically proven to be awesome by all sorts of experts. I'd been a fan of his bands for years, and when the Night Marchers -- his latest band -- came to town on their first tour, it was A Big Deal.

Unfortunately, that date coincided with my diagnosis of the brain tumor. So there was that. Still, the show was incredible and I had no worries, thoughts or concerns about the future at that point. It was a very uplifting and positive experience.

Now they were coming back. Even though I still had radiation treatment ahead of me, it was a fitting bookend to the whole cancer experience. But there was the white count to contend with.