MIDDLE 7. Blood Count

7. BLOOD COUNT

Each day Clara endures

With grace, good humour

Nurse visit

Taking of blood

Prick tip of finger

“Which finger today dear?”

Squeeze blood drops

For tests.

Sometimes it’s hard to get a drop

Perhaps Clara is anxious, cold…

Or, it seems, some days

As if she draws back her blood

Reluctant to have

Another piece of herself taken.

Later in the day her results come back

Like getting the cricket score

Count high or low

Depending on phase of chemotherapy

Red and white cells deplete

As chemo destroys dividing cells

Red blood cells low- transfusion needed

Then red count up again.

Between chemotherapy phases

Anxiously watch

White blood cell count

Are the bad lymphocytes multiplying?

Over the months count goes up and down

Then, finally, it just keeps climbing

As Clara slowly drowns

In a sea of lymphocytes.

27 November 2012

Comment

At one point we all, immediate family, have blood samples taken. Assessing if we are compatible for a possible bone marrow transplant. As my finger is jabbed there is a moment of pain. I tell myself, I’m doing it for Clara. And it’s only once, she does it hundreds of times. (The bone marrow transplant was later deemed not feasible.)