Day 2 Re-Induction

We had our favorite oncologist come in to speak to us. I LOVE HER! She is so blunt and honest. She is self described as a pessimist "always sees the glass as half-empty". I appreciate this, because I don't like fluff or B.S. when a life is on the line. I like upfront honesty. Worst case scenario is what I want to hear. I know it is morbid, but I can prepare my heart that way.

She told us that Jeremie is "unique". They have never seen anything quite like him. AML with CNS involvement is rare. And like in prior posts his presentation is weird. The leukemia cells in his CNS were of the same cytology, meaning that they were the same type of leukemia. They cannot give us a prognosis, due to Jeremie's unique presentation. But they are taking out the big guns...

The plan involves Jeremie finishing this induction of chemotherapy. Hopefully taking him home, and having him hit his "nader" or zero count at home. We have an awesome routine with Dr. Lemon and the infusion clinic at IHC in St. George (THEY ROCK!). It helps when one of your good friends works at the infusion clinic and is an awesome nurse!  I feel that he is in such good hands.

Then we wait for a phone call telling us to return to Salt Lake for the transplant.

With the transplant, there will be a 6 treatment regimen of total body irradiation (TBI), with concentration of irradiation on the cranium and spinal column. This "extra" process of irradiation increases the chance of complete remission in the CNS, which will increase remission/cure percentage. Again cannot give us an exact prognosis.

Next, another treatment regimen of chemotherapy. These treatments are to prepare the bone marrow to have the graft transplanted. The graft will be transfused.  It will naturally find its way to the bone, coat it and then find its way into the bone marrow growing and becoming (hopefully) a new immune system capable of kicking any new leukemia's bum.

He will stay in the hospital after the transplant for 4-6 weeks, until his numbers or "counts" come back. These are his platelets, red blood cells and neutrophils.  They are the main focus of our life at this time :-) Then will begin the 100 days of being outpatient, but close to LDS hospital. YUCK...still trying to find a way out of this one. I'm a believer of finding "loop" holes ;-)

So the yucky part. This is our last ditch effort. This is throwing everything at him and the kitchen sink, in hopes of achieving a long term remission/cure. If this does not give us remission or cure. Or if his leukemia comes back despite all of this. We don't have any more rabbits to pull out of the hat. Knowing this is scary, to be honest. And it was hard to hear. And again, we don't have a clear percentage of if/how this will work with Jeremie and his unique leukemia.