Legalectric

UPDATE: It’s been two weeks now. Alan is settled into room 9-415 in Eisenberg in Mayo’s Methodist campus . He’s still short on platelets and getting a refrigerated batch right now. He IS feeling MUCH better, no longer utterly worn down, no longer bruising all over and the earlier bruises are slowly fading away. Not long ago, Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia was a death sentence, and no longer. Things have changed in leukemia world, and the medical care at Mayo is top notch. I’m particularly impressed with the nurses who are ON this, with multiple infusions going, platelets, arsenic, and antibiotics. As of yesterday (?) antibiotics are done and his hand is healing, almost done, no longer infected.

And yes, arsenic. He’s on half doses and that will be increasing sometime next week. For APL, the treatment that apparently works is ATRA, which is a Vitamin A derivative (weird, huh?), and arsenic (even weirder!). I’d wondered about treating dog’s heartworm with arsenic, particularly when our Kady-Kate lost her marbles and spent her days staring into space, but I’d checked with three vets and none knew anything about potential of impact of arsenic on cognition. We’ll see!

Anyway, Alan’s doing well, now has a PIC line, making the infusions easier, and they’d said in particular they want it in for arsenic infusions. OK, whatever, here we go! He’s up and about, making regular trips to the hospital library down in the basement, bringing back a load of books each time, and it looks like I’m going to have to bring in a bookshelf!

Since he can go hang out downstairs in the library for an hour or more, I’m trying to finagle a picnic with Little Sadie. Alan really misses his doggie, and there’s a good driveway where we could do a pick-up!