April 21, 2025

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The big focus is on Marlon’s blood sugar.  Normal range is 4-7.  At first when they noticed his levels were high (when I was away on Saturday), they were at 17.  Since that time, the lowest they have been is 15 and the highest is 25.9.  He is peeing so much and they wonder why he is still losing weight.  He has now lost over 10 kilograms (22+ pounds) in 3 days.  Both the steroids and the chemo he had yesterday affect the ability to deal with glucose but still they keep injecting more insulin into him and his blood sugar levels are much higher than they should be.  I don’t get it.  But I do.  It seems that already the leukemia is weakening and going away so these drugs are working for their intended purpose but all the other side effects are popping up.

Yesterday after the chemo when Marlon felt so bad, we sat together for a while and then he fell asleep so I went out for a walk.  A longer walk and I spent a good while watching a hawk after it flew down to a branch and then to the ground where it shuffled its claws around looking for food.  The way it was stamping and moving those legs, I wondered if it was just snacking on worms as they popped their heads out of the ground.  Or maybe it was a snake. I saw many robins wandering on the grass as well looking for worms.  In such high demand those earthworms.

I called Marlon while I was out and he was plugged into his phone and faring fine.  

Most days I manage some kind of a walk and that is my time.  I do feel guilty to take that time but Marlon is fine with it.  I think I worry more than he does. Today the weather was wet so I only spent a little time outside and more time just walking the hallways.  I do drag Marlon out for a lap or two while he drags his IV pole along.

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