Blood Work -- A See Saw

Yesterday (Thurday) I had my blood count check. Platelets are back in the normal range (yea!), but white blood count (wbc) and hemoglobin are still very low. The wbc has remained the same, and the hemoglobin has dropped from 7.0 to 6.6. There are multiple theories/concerns about this scenario:

1. My Beaumont doctor's theory is that my blood work is down because of amount of chemotherapy I've had over the course of the last two years. This is why we stopped the chemotherapy a couple of weeks ago. As for my blood levels today, he says my body has been working so hard to get the platelets into a normal range that it has not had energy/time to work on wbc and hemoglobin. He maintains that platelets are the most critical units of blood of health, and their gain is a good sign. Hemoglobin apparently always takes longer to rebuild, and he thinks it would rebuild on its own in 3-6 weeks. In the meantime though, he maintains that I'll feel weak and tired -- "miserable through Christmas." He wants me to have a blood transfusion.
2. The Midland doctor is much more concerned with the possibility of a bone marrow problem, caused by the amount of chemotherapy that I've been exposed to. He would like to hold off on doing a blood transfusion, do a bone marrow biopsy, and see if I have disease of the bone marrow (i.e. leukemia, other).
3. A third, almost unspoken possibility is that my cancer has moved into my spine or bone marrow. Again, a bone marrow biopsy has to be used to confirm this.
   

All very unsettling news. I went to the library after talking some of this through with my doctor yesterday -- better to be there than to be home and worried. As I drove home, I asked God to help direct/comfort me. Any of you who have followed this blog know that the story of Peter walking on the water has been the "theme" of my second battle with breast cancer. After I finished praying, the song "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns came on the radio. Videos of this song are posted on my blog. Some of the lyrics are:

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

Chorus:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

I'm not reading anything into this except that God was (and is) nearby. I've consistently had friends (and Paul) say to have the blood transfusion. For today, this is what I am going to do.

Please pray for healthy, restored marrow at the end of all of this. I trust the experience of my Beaumont doctor, and believe that he has a better understanding of my health history. I don't want to have to have a bone marrow biopsy down the road. That would certainly be out of my comfort zone.