Next Steps

I can't believe it's only 4 days until Christmas and the kids are still in school - so crazy! Eric had his Holiday Concert at school on Monday and Tuesday of this week (see pic; note I tried to influence his wardrobe choice but was unsuccessful). Joel is apparently too old for Christmas concerts now. 

Eric had his regular weekly check in at clinic yesterday. He remains stable; the blood and platelet transfusions from before Disney World are still holding. Additionally, he had a chest CT to ensure we aren't losing any ground on the GVHD in his lungs since we've reduced his immune suppressants. According to the doctors, his lungs "maybe" look "slightly" better; gotta love the commitment! But better is better, so we'll take it. 

I had mentioned previously, that the treatment that we tried a couple months ago was not successful in stimulating the donor cells to eliminate the abnormal cells. In fact, his follow up biopsy showed 80% abnormal cells and DNA test shows that he only has about 10% donor cells left. This means that Eric is losing his graft (the bone marrow donation) and the abnormal cells are taking over again. The abnormal cells are not cancer cells. They are malfunctioning marrow cells that do not allow his body to make correct cells, which then do cause cancer cells to develop. At this time, there are a few blast (cancer) cells circulating in Eric's blood, but they have not taken off. 

In terms of next steps, Eric's doctor would like to do another bone marrow biopsy early in the year since its the only way to actually "see" what is happening in his body. We need to ensure that the blasts are not more prevalent in the marrow, than in the blood. Regardless, the only option to treat Eric's disease is another Bone Marrow Transplant (aka BMT or Stem Cell Transplant). We already know that we are very lucky that Eric has a number of matches on the donor registry, and some have even been worked up already since his last transplant was (just) less than a year ago. We will have a better idea of timing following the biopsy in early January. 

In the meantime, we are thrilled to be able to spend Christmas at home together as a family and that's what we will be focusing on for now. 

Merry Christmas to all of our amazing friends, family and incredible support network.