This post is what my husband would call Erin’s random thinking. He said you can see how I think and relate things after some of my earlier posts. So today’s random connection is pool chemicals and blood counts.
One of the daily things my job as a pool manager entailed was checking our pool chemicals. Generally we did a pretty job maintaining acceptable levels but every now and then levels could be off.
If levels were off, myself and/or our maintenance specialist would make the adjustments needed to get the chemicals back to safe levels. We are both certified pool operators.
As long as chemicals were within the allowed range (determined by the state health department) people can use the pool. It doesn’t matter if it’s the low end of the range or high, just not above or below.
The difficulty I ran into was with our swim lessons as I had an instructor frequently try not to run classes citing the chemicals, specifically chlorine was too low. I would explain even if it’s a 1 it’s in range. We can make adjustments in the pump house to try to bring them up but it’s safe to use.
This, how do I put it, challenging instructor wouldn’t back down so I often had to run up to the pool on Saturdays to confirm safe levels to get the lessons to run. It also led me to check the chemicals 7 AM every Saturday morning to ensure the lessons could run and try to avoid problems later. And I’d still get challenged and still have to run back to the pool but that’s a story for another day.
The point that the instructor failed to see was in range is in range. Low doesn’t mean you have to cancel your lessons and not go in the pool.
It reminded me of my recent blood counts. Due to the cancer and chemo, white counts drop. I had been lucky to stay in the low but normal range for awhile. I knew that if I dropped low, much like the pool, adjustments could be made to bring the count back up. The adjustment with the blood count would be a white blood cell injection.
The previous two weeks my count was low, but thankfully I could still get chemo. I just needed a white cell booster. When I ended up in the ER my count was too low and I had to skip a week of chemo. This is just part of the chemo/cancer process.
The white cell booster is not uncommon to be needed with chemo. I had concerned family and friends which I appreciate but sometimes stuff just happens with chemo and cancer and we just make the adjustment and keep on. My oncologist is now having me get these injections preventatively to avoid any low counts which are dangerous.
It’s much like the pool. There are times chlorine would go low, the pool could still be used, we adjust the numbers in the pump house and keep going.
So there’s my latest random comparison of the cancer experience: blood counts are like pool chemical checks. When you’re a manager of a busy year round pool, these counts are so frequent and such a big part of the job that I immediately thought of the chem checks and my blood counts. And like much in life, sometimes things need to be adjusted to get back to normal.
