Summer's Chemo Cycle Explained (image)

I have had a number of people ask about Summer's chemo cycles, so I made this image to try to explain it.  Summer is going through 6 cycles of chemo with each cycle being approximately 21 days.  A cycle is the time between one round of treatment until the start of the next.  After each round of chemo treatment, she gets a break to allow her body to recover.  

Today is Day 18 of Cycle 2 - so right now Summer is in her Rest & Recovery phase.  Generally between Days 16 through 21, she should feel 'her best' with a high white blood count.  Days 7 through 14 is when Summer's white blood count is LOW, with Days 10-12 being the lowest.  This orange & red period is the time in her cycle when Summer/we need to be the most careful, as it is difficult for Summer to fight off any infection. Days 1-5 is when Summer gets her chemo infusion.  

Cycle 2 will actually be 22 days so Summer gets one additional day of rest before she starts cycle 3 on Friday, June 3, 2022.  When cycle 3 starts, we go back to day 1 and do it all again.  

Update 5/31/22:

I updated the image to include nadir and took the arrow “we are here” off so it could be referenced throughout the cycle. 

Nadir is a term that basically means low point. When a person with cancer reaches their “nadir” following each chemotherapy infusion, it means that the person's blood cell counts are the lowest they will be during that treatment cycle. Each chemotherapy treatment comes with a nadir period.

Here’s the new image.