Biopsy Results

Eric had a clinic visit yesterday, Friday. It was a looong day. Usually we go to the lab for bloodwork before his appointment, but at 9:50am the line up was not just out the door, which we've seen once before, but also down the hall, which we've never seen before. Eric took one look and said NO. It was 50/50 he'd have to have his port accessed for a transfusion anyhow so we decided just to go to clinic and and have his port accessed for bloodwork. We stopped at Starbucks on the way so Eric could get a Milk 2 Go Chocolate Milk, his favourite Starbucks beverage! He also wanted to try the charcuterie snack box, but rejected it, along with pretty much everything else he tried yesterday. 

We hadn't put Emla on his chest before we left the house so had to do that at clinic and then wait for it to numb before he could be accessed for bloodwork. His doctor came by to let us know that all of Eric's counts are down from the last bloodwork which was done Monday and that he recommended a platelet transfusion. Luckily they had the fancy platelets that Eric needs due to his allergy on site so they were able to start the pre-meds right away followed by the platelets. Unfortunately, it was still 3:20 before we left, so traffic home was already pretty heavy. We got home at 4:30 giving us an hour and a half to rest before Eric's school Halloween Dance. 

Eric is the one with 2 heads 🤣

We did also receive the results of Eric's bone marrow biopsy from October 16. The marrow is showing 17-20% blasts (not great), 78% of the abnormal cells that mark his disease (pretty bad) and 52% donor DNA. Obviously we'd like the donor DNA to be 100% as we've been seeing for the last 6-8 months, but the fact that there is still donor DNA is hopeful. The hope is that the current treatment will suppress the bad cells and allow the donor cells to make a resurgence, which is what happened last time. We are hopeful because Eric's donor cells did win the fight with his bad cells last time. Today is day 10 of the 28 day cycle and we won't know if it is working until Eric has another bone marrow biopsy at the end of this cycle. While this treatment is more aggressive than what he has been receiving, we hope that Eric will tolerate it okay and be able to attend school and other activities. For the most part, he is not nauseous, but his appetite has taken a serious hit. We are currently working to balance his meds to minimize the side effects. 

Today we are off to the pumpkin patch, back to school Monday and next clinic appointment is Wednesday.