We await the numbers nightly. They’re never as high as we’d like, but any sign of an upward trajectory is cause for cheer in the family chat. The day his neutrophils were a whopping 5.8% (the normal count for neutrophils, the white blood cells that fight infection and disease, is between 40-60%; some say 50-70%), I cheered so loudly over the phone that I thought I’d combust. And yet the next day,, the neutrophils were down to zero again, and they have yet to recover.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to REASONS FOR LIVING with Esmé Weijun Wang to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.