Monday, January 05, 2004
Day + 82 Platelets are 180 today. That is the highest they have been for the last few years. I was a bit scared when they fell to 92, but for the last few appointments they have steadily been flying up. 180 is in the normal range. John's hemoglobin went up a point and is now 11.4 and his white cells are 4.1 today. Everything is going really well, even Dr. Wolf seemed to be floating on air over John's blood test results. I just know that the knot in my stomach is finally beginning to loosen for the first time and I am feeling very optimistic about John's recovery.
Dr. Wolf took cut one of the anti-GVH medicines in half, the goal being for John to be off all of the rejection medicines in the next two weeks. January 21 will be a bone marrow biopsy since John will be at day +98 and they want to check the percentage of donor cells versus John. I know I reported the last bone marrow biopsy was 100% donor cells, but apparently that changes after a couple months. The ultimate goal is to make sure the new cells fight off any leukemia cells John happens to make. I am not really sure why they left some of John's marrow, but imagine that for the rest of John's long life a war being fought between the two immune systems one fighting any cancer cells that turn up and the other I think fighting any GVH that happens to occur. All I know is John continues to do great. He gets stronger everyday and I think he will probably be able to return to school earlier than expected. Dr. Wolf gave a thumbs up on John returning by March, but I have a sneaking feeling by late January John will want to begin to return to some sort of professional cooking. Perhaps Lalimes will take him back a few days before John starts school again.
Have a favor to ask all of you. As you know the leukemia circle is pretty tight and over the years I have made many friends who have been suffering from leukemia. My friend, PJ is in intensive care right now on a ventilator and is experiencing kidney failure. The prognosis is grim, worst thing is she is not dying from the disease itself, but the ravages of fighting the disease for a couple years. PJ has a 13 year old daughter and was preparing to for a second try at a "haplo" BMT and now that is on hold until she can recover and get strong enough to be able to life through the procedure. Please put PJ in your prayers.
Dr. Wolf took cut one of the anti-GVH medicines in half, the goal being for John to be off all of the rejection medicines in the next two weeks. January 21 will be a bone marrow biopsy since John will be at day +98 and they want to check the percentage of donor cells versus John. I know I reported the last bone marrow biopsy was 100% donor cells, but apparently that changes after a couple months. The ultimate goal is to make sure the new cells fight off any leukemia cells John happens to make. I am not really sure why they left some of John's marrow, but imagine that for the rest of John's long life a war being fought between the two immune systems one fighting any cancer cells that turn up and the other I think fighting any GVH that happens to occur. All I know is John continues to do great. He gets stronger everyday and I think he will probably be able to return to school earlier than expected. Dr. Wolf gave a thumbs up on John returning by March, but I have a sneaking feeling by late January John will want to begin to return to some sort of professional cooking. Perhaps Lalimes will take him back a few days before John starts school again.
Have a favor to ask all of you. As you know the leukemia circle is pretty tight and over the years I have made many friends who have been suffering from leukemia. My friend, PJ is in intensive care right now on a ventilator and is experiencing kidney failure. The prognosis is grim, worst thing is she is not dying from the disease itself, but the ravages of fighting the disease for a couple years. PJ has a 13 year old daughter and was preparing to for a second try at a "haplo" BMT and now that is on hold until she can recover and get strong enough to be able to life through the procedure. Please put PJ in your prayers.
