Lunch at Victor’s 1959 Café, on our way home from my infusion. Yum.

Today’s infusion visit took three hours—far longer than usual. Mostly that was because they took blood counts first, then waited for lab results and my doctor’s decision before beginning. This will be the normal case on Tuesdays and Fridays: the blood counts they took daily during my inpatient days are now twice per week, on those two days.

The good news: numbers were all fine, so the infusion went forward.

As the course of treatment continues, I think I am feeling the toxicity increase gradually over time. Although I was awake for most of the infusion today, I didn’t feel the mental focus to write or to do much of anything brainy. Instead I wiled my time away on little iPad games and surfing news headlines. Also, the sense of malaise that I feel afterward in the day is increasing.

This makes sense: although the body flushes out arsenic trioxide fairly quickly, it can’t keep up with daily infusions. A persistent level of arsenic will build up slightly with each day of treatment, so it makes intuitive sense (to me) that I would feel a bit crappier as each day passes. This may also be a main reason I have felt more fatigued at home than I did in the hospital: more arsenic hanging out in my body, around the clock. One more reason to be eager for remission and the shift to the consolidation phase of treatment: the two-week infusion breaks will give my body time to flush that stuff out, and hopefully let me feel a bit better. Fingers crossed that this happens in the next week. I should know more after my clinic appointment on Friday.

On the bright side, we are having yet another beautiful-weather day in Minnesota, and I will be getting outside for a walk right after the girls come home from school. For that I am thankful.

I should note: for those who have been contemplating a visit, we are and remain open and welcoming. Just call, text, or message to arrange a time that works. Generally afternoons and evenings are best. With all the warm weather we have already opened our deck for seating and socializing. We’d love to have you there.

-Markus

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Aurora rides her scooter way ahead of me, next to a frozen Lake Harriet.

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This post originally published on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markus.silpala/posts/10212274065873524