06/08 10:45Lots of improvement today! Alan's white counts are up so no more Neupogen. We don't even need to come back until Monday! We had a little blast from the past today - during vitals, Alan was playing with one of the calculators again, and would not let go of the thing even at the end of the visit. Doc P let him take it as long as we bring it back next week. He hasn't played with those things for months, but he was having a blast with it today. We'll need to find him a big calculator of his own.
ANC 6635
Preliminary results on the cultures came back as either a skin born bacteria (very common) or the more serious MRSA (something to be concerned about since Alan has been in and out of hospitals so much). Apparently the bacteria have exactly the same shape, so it takes some more extensive testing to see which one of the two it is. The good thing is that they also both respond to the antibiotic Doc P prescribed this weekend. We'll continue that as well as the the topical ointment.
As we were checking out, an update arrived and it is not MRSA! Doc P thinks it's likely that the broken skin was being irritated by the surture he trimmed on Monday as well as the bandage over it during last week's chemo. It's under control now, so we are able to take Alan swimming in our scrupulously maintained hot tub (Harold spends a lot of time making sure that it is sanitized) or a pool we have a high degree of confidence in as long as we take reasonable precautions.
Ahhh, my old friend, I had forgotten how much fun you are!
such wonderful news and he looks like such a big big boy in the picture!
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