I Should've Paid Better Attention in Chemistry

The oncologist I met with prior to today's infusion was kind enough to review all the labs they've been taking over the past weeks to try to educate me a bit on what was going on. I, of course, don't remember the details of what he said or even what tests we talked about, but I do at least have a better understanding at a higher level of what the oncologists are looking for. 

That said, two of the oncologist's comments did stick with me:

"This test is measuring the performance of your bone marrow and you can see here where it was working fine before we started attacking it." He did not, unfortunately, tell me how far from fine I had fallen.

"This test measures your white blood cell count [at least I think that's what it was], and you can see that it's been dropping precipitously over the past four tests. When the first number is a zero [current value is 1.7] we'll have to stop, or at least back off on, the chemo." If only I could remember which test he was talking about so I could monitor it myself on the GHC website. 

In that vein, it strikes me now that I probably should've used my phone to take a picture of the screen we were reviewing so I would know which of the numerous tests they're running I should be paying attention to.

Oh well. At least I now have a quantitative indication that the chemo is as least doing something to me, if not to the tumors in my liver.