Diagnosis

Over the last few weeks Minnie had noticed bruising in Daddy’s (Neelou/Rene) arms. He was also due for his annual Flu shots. Minnie took Daddy to his visit with his long time Primary Care Physician for a scheduled visit in Wednesday, Dec 4th. The next morning Dec 5th, the PCP called Minnie and recommended him to be taken to the St. David’s Emergency Center in North Austin. His platelet count was very low (4000). She had already sent a referral with all the details.

Soon after his arrival, he was admitted and the ER team conducted additional blood work and other work ups. The ER Internal Medicine Doc also ordered Blood Transfusion.

The ER Internal Medicine Doc got on the phone with the Hematologist and scheduled a review and Daddy was moved from the ER area to his private room in the Oncology Care section. The next day a Bone Marrow Biopsy was done and the Hematologist arrived at a preliminary diagnosis of Acute Leukemia.

He discussed the findings with Daddy & Minnie. While treatment at the age of 93 may not be considered by many, the doctor asked us to consider it given that Daddy has no other significant comorbidities and he was excited and encouraged by his “biological age”, which he figured was that of a late 70 or early eighty year old.

He referred him to his trusted colleagues at St. David’s South Austin, and arranged a hospital to hospital transfer, that made it very easy for him and us.

The attention and support of the ER Team, Nurses, Support Staff, and Doctors at the North Austin was wonderful and for Minnie and I, it was handsfree.

While we waited for the ambulance, He was with the Deepak (My friend visiting from Kolkata, India) and Suresh, our neighbor regaling them of stories of Raj Kapoor and Prithviraj Kapoor during the formative days in Kolkata and origin stories of New Theatre.

Rene talks about Raj Kapoor with Deepak and Suresh, while Joy takes a break.