Life in Albany

So here we are -- now at Albany Medical Center.  We met with our new doctor yesterday morning and Andrew was admitted last night.  Dr. E looks just like Lisa Loeb (for all you fellow Gen Xers), but she seems very thorough, so we're encouraged despite her youth and funky eyewear.  It's been stressful, starting with another new team, and they're still trying to gather info from all of our previous adventures. Don't get sick around the holidays -- it just complicates everything even more -- everyone is on vacation, no one knows where anything is ... Poor Dr. Liu doesn't even know yet that we're no longer in his care.  But we're in the hospital and Andrew has started the B cycle of his treatment, so everything seems to be on track as it should be.  At this point we're learning to go with the flow as much as possible.

 rock and roll 

The B cycle is more rituximab (wonder drug), methotrexate, and cytarabine -- some is IV, some is intrathecal.  This cycle is supposed to be very tough, but fortunately, Andrew is in much better shape than he was when he started the first cycle.  At WMC we were told that we would be there for 4-5 days, but AMC has told us 7 days.  The AMC pathologists will also be looking at the slides, so we'll now have 3 opinions on diagnosis, which I guess is a good thing.  Maybe one of them will be able to figure out the inscrutable McTiernan NHL.

Some good news .... the second bone marrow biopsy came back with "undetectable" levels.  It doesn't mean that there's absolutely no lymphoma present, but certainly a promising result after just one treatment!

I'll update more as we settle in here.  We hope everyone is having lovely holidays and staying happy and healthy!

xo
L