Tag: cancer
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Friday the 13th
For the last few days, concern has been increasing over the fact that George’s white blood cell count hasn’t started going back up after this last round of chemo. Dr Ghimire expressed his concern on the phone when he called earlier this week to discuss the results of the blood work George had on the…
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Bone Marrow Transplant Consult #2
Yesterday, we drove out to UPenn in Philadelphia to meet with Dr. Loren. We hadn’t seen her since March and we were hungry for information and for some kind of timeline for the transplant. Well, we did get a lot of information. Some of it good, and some of it rather daunting. GOOD NEWS: Dr.…
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The joy of normalcy
In a previous post, I wrote that George had finished up his round of chemo injections and we were happy that we didn’t have to drive the 50 minutes to Camden every day anymore. Then I remembered that he would have to have blood drawn regularly so, maybe we were kidding ourselves. Well, the good…
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Wait, what? In search of a bone marrow donor…
After meeting with Dr. Loren at UPenn in March for a bone marrow transplant consultation, we got instructions to get George’s sister tested to see if she is a match for George. Jasmine, the HLA typing Coordinator, sent a test kit out to Liliane and, after searching high and low for an establishment that would…
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A New Week Begins
Today is Monday and last Friday, George finished up his injections of Vidaza. He is still taking the Venclexta pills for another week, though. We are both glad we won’t have to drive to Camden every day anymore….but are we fooling ourselves? Today, George has a follow up appointment with Dr. Ghimire and then as…
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Consolidation Chemo – round 2
As requested by Dr. Ghimire’s office, George started his second round of chemotherapy on Thursday, the day after his lumbar puncture. This was going to be a different experience from his induction chemo and his last round of chemo, both of which were administered while he was hospitalized. This time, his chemo will be administered…
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This Is Spinal Tap
Two days after getting his bone marrow biopsy, George was back at UPenn for a lumbar puncture. The traffic was hell going into the University City area, but I’m starting to think that is just the norm. There is SO much there – The University of Pennsylvania, the hospitals, the research centers, CHOP (Children’s Hospital…
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Bone Marrow Biopsy #3
Yesterday, March 28 we drove out to UPenn in Philadelphia for George’s scheduled bone marrow biopsy. He has had two previous biopsies at Cooper hospital, but said this experience was different. At Cooper, he was hospitalized when he had them so of course it was different in that respect. This time his biopsy was done…
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What a Busy Week!
Now that we have decided that George will have his bone marrow transplant at UPenn, there is much to do to get him ready, as well as keeping him on the path to healing and staying in remission. On Monday, the home health nurse from Bayada came by and looked at George’s wound on his…
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BMT Consult #2- The Hospital at University of Pennsylvania
George’s second bone marrow transplant consultation appointment was with Dr. Loren at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. We didn’t really learn any new information. There are some differences in the way UPenn and Jefferson approach the transplant process. One notable difference is that Jefferson will use half matches, while UPenn strives for full…
Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A Journey 