Last evening our good friends the Woughters brought their son Dan and two additional friends, Aidan Curtin and John Mormino to visit (distract) Sawyer. It worked. As they were leaving Sawyer was heard to say that he was going to break one of his friend's legs so that they would have to stay (it's the thought that counts). The remainder of the night was relatively quiet with the exception of the medication switch that took place at 2am and again at 2:30 am. It also helped that Sawyer's roommate moved out yesterday afternoon and the bed has remained empty. Having a private room is wonderful.
This morning Sawyer's primary physician, Dr. Mullen, stopped by with his cohort of resident doctors in tow. He provided an update regarding a replacement chemo for asparaginase. As you may, or may not, recall, Sawyer had a severe allergic reaction to asparaginase about a month and a half ago and will no longer be receiving that medication. Dr. Mullen reported that asparaginase is a very important part of Sawyer's protocol and will be replaced with erwinia / erwinaze. This is a close relative of aparaginase and studies have shown that it has a 90% tolerance rate and that its effectiveness is close, if not equal to, that of asparaginase. Both are good news. The only downside is that it has to be administered as a shot (intramuscularly) three times a week for two weeks (that cycle will happen twice; once for each time he is scheduled to get asparaginase). Dr. Mullen stated that the first time Sawyer is scheduled to receive this treatment, it will take place in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). Of course this is good news that will only be made better once we see that Sawyer can tolerate the treatment.
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