Posted by BeckyToday was really busy, starting at 7am with a bone marrow biopsy, continuing through a dressing change on Leif's surgical incison at 10, various antibiotics running at various times, doctor visits and a CT scan at 4pm. The pain from the incision is still pretty serious when Leif stands up. He doesn't have to get his incision re-packed after today, so that's a relief. He's been continuing to walk as much as he can, despite the pain, because it's important for him to maintain his conditioning. The docs agree that he isn't damaging anything in the incision by exercising.
His red blood cells and platelets have been basically stable but not really moving much. His neutrophil count has gone up a bit. In other words, there's a whole lot of waiting going on. No fevers, though. They have changed his antibiotics to target the bugs turning up in the cultured samples taken from his abscess. The idea is that the most targeted antibiotics will knock down the bad bugs, without unduly hurting populations of the good bugs.
The bone marrow biopsy and CT scan are to do a check on how Leif's disease has responded to the most recent chemo regimen, and to assist the doctors' decision-making going forward. There are a lot of options they are weighing, including going directly to (donor) stem cell transplant, or more chemotherapy. Sometime toward the middle of next week, they should have begun to formulate a plan.
In case they decide to go straight to transplant, the transplant team here at DHMC has identified a donor and is going through the process of evaluating him/her for safety (both the donor's safety and Leif's safety), suitability, etc. If this donor doesn't pan out, the database contains a good number of other potential matches, so there isn't any worry regarding being able to locate a suitable donor for Leif. Using his own stem cells is no longer an option due to the way his disease has been behaving.
If any of you between the ages of 18 and 44 have not signed up to be a bone marrow/blood stem cell donor yet, you can start the process right away at http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx. The need is especially great in the US for donors who belong to a racial/ethnic minority or are mixed-race. I signed up to be a donor a couple of years ago; they send you a kit, you rub a Q-tip on the inside of your cheek and mail it back to them, and then they contact you occasionally to make sure you're still available to donate. It's easy to do, and you could save somebody's life.
His red blood cells and platelets have been basically stable but not really moving much. His neutrophil count has gone up a bit. In other words, there's a whole lot of waiting going on. No fevers, though. They have changed his antibiotics to target the bugs turning up in the cultured samples taken from his abscess. The idea is that the most targeted antibiotics will knock down the bad bugs, without unduly hurting populations of the good bugs.
The bone marrow biopsy and CT scan are to do a check on how Leif's disease has responded to the most recent chemo regimen, and to assist the doctors' decision-making going forward. There are a lot of options they are weighing, including going directly to (donor) stem cell transplant, or more chemotherapy. Sometime toward the middle of next week, they should have begun to formulate a plan.
In case they decide to go straight to transplant, the transplant team here at DHMC has identified a donor and is going through the process of evaluating him/her for safety (both the donor's safety and Leif's safety), suitability, etc. If this donor doesn't pan out, the database contains a good number of other potential matches, so there isn't any worry regarding being able to locate a suitable donor for Leif. Using his own stem cells is no longer an option due to the way his disease has been behaving.
If any of you between the ages of 18 and 44 have not signed up to be a bone marrow/blood stem cell donor yet, you can start the process right away at http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx. The need is especially great in the US for donors who belong to a racial/ethnic minority or are mixed-race. I signed up to be a donor a couple of years ago; they send you a kit, you rub a Q-tip on the inside of your cheek and mail it back to them, and then they contact you occasionally to make sure you're still available to donate. It's easy to do, and you could save somebody's life.
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