Tag: bone marrow
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Well, Damn.
We actually got the preliminary results from George’s bone marrow biopsy on Friday, June 30th, but I opened them first and when I read them, I chose not to tell George they were available. Why? Because I saw words that I knew would cause him stress and fear….”increased blasts” and “the findings are consistent with…
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Bone Marrow Biopsy #7
Yesterday, George had his seventh bone marrow biopsy. He has to be clear of AML in order to have his transplant next month. He’s getting pretty good at this! So, we should get the preliminary results by the end of the week. The molecular data will take about a month. He had it done under…
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It’s been a minute…
Well, I haven’t posted anything in a while because honestly, we have just been in what seems like a holding pattern until George gets his second bone marrow transplant in July. But, now that may be delayed. George started his chemo rounds in February and has now undergone 4 cycles. The last two were with…
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New Chemo
George started his next round of chemotherapy on Monday, April 17. Because the doctors suspected that the lung issues that landed him in the hospital were caused by the chemo med Vidaza that George had been given before, he was given a new drug this time. The new drug is called Dacogen (decitabine). It’s a…
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He’s Home!
After 9 nights in the hospital, George was finally released yesterday! The doctors ran exhaustive tests and cultures and everything came back negative (and they tested for A LOT). No pneumocystis pneumonia (whew!). That left them with the conclusion that George’s lung issues were caused by the chemotherapy drug Vidaza that he had been receiving…
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Making progress!
Today marks one week since George was admitted to the hospital. He has had some tough days at the beginning where he was out of breath walking to the bathroom, coughing fits that brought him to tears and retching, and complete frustration that every day was no better than the last. But a couple of…
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A Second Transplant It Is…
Yesterday was George’s birthday. The love of my life turned 59 years old. We celebrated by going to the Perelman Cancer Center at UPenn for George’s scheduled labs, infusion and then appointment with Dr. Loren. When George was getting his labs taken, the nurse said, “Hey, why don’t we just do your infusion now since you’re already back here?” George’s…
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Cycle One Complete
George has completed his first regimen of chemotherapy. For seven days, he drove to Philadelphia (about an hour’s drive) to get his infusion of Vidaza. Since I am working at H&R Block during this tax season, he had to go alone for the first time. But, he did great, as I knew he would. Now…
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“It’s Starting….”
George was sitting in his recliner on Monday evening when he got a notification that his lab results from earlier in the day were available on the UPenn portal. He gets blood drawn every Monday by the nurse from Penn Home infusion that comes to the house. The results showed that his white blood cell…
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BM biopsy results…
….were not what we were hoping for. In addition, the DLI did nothing to boost his chimerism numbers. He only has 2% donor cells in his bone marrow. Today is 223 post transplant, almost 7 months after transplant. We so thought George would be getting his first round of childhood vaccines last month, but that…
Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A Journey 