Methemoglobinemia

Say that five times real fast.

Today saw the first clinic visit of the new year. Scott's counts, as expected due to steroids, were jacked up. A whopping ANC in the 4600 range. So chemo was given. All the viral panel from last week had come back and nothing nasty was found. Another bit of blood was drawn just before Scott was deaccessed, and a nurse took it away right quick like for testing.

Turns out Scott has a condition called methemaglobinemia. You can read about it at that link. Seems the basics of the condition is an effect on red blood cells which doesn't allow them to carry oxygen, so they die. When they die, biliruben levels escalate. Also appears to be Dapsone-induced, so Scott has now been taken off Dapsone, and will start Pentamidine treatments at next weeks clinic visit. Not sure about the frequency of the treatments though. We'll ask about that on the next visit.

At least we've gotten an explanation for the elevated biliruben. This level should be back to normal range next week.

Otherwise Scott seems about "normal" for it to be a few days past the steroid pulse. He is a bit mood-swingy at times, and has trouble sleeping. At least he's not "gone a bit bitey" yet.

So that's the Scott news early in this year.