We had hoped to be nice and quick at the hospital today; get our platelets and run, but no such luck. Eric was in such a good mood when we arrived, but his nurse missed his port on the first try and he cried. I got him chocolate milk and she got him LEGO, but he was not a happy boy after that. Platelets were pre-ordered but slow to be ready. It did give lots of time for Grandma to arrive from the airport, and to have a good conversation with Eric's Oncologist.
Biopsy results are, unfortunately, not giving us the clear answer we were hoping for. The mutated cells are down to 83% from about 97% at the last biopsy. Additionally, donor cells are up to 16% from about 8% at the last biopsy. This is all good news. However, the leukemia blasts are also up to almost 30% which is not so good. Eric's doctor has dug into the info a bit and discovered that an initial increase in blast count has occurred fairly frequently with this med and then it leveled out over time. He doesn't want to give up yet, hoping to see the improvements continue and the blasts to decrease. Though he has acknowledged that we're dealing with a lot of uncertainty here. Either it is working. Or it is very, very not. But we don't know which. We will continue to monitor the blast count in the peripheral blood, which is up to 1.5 today, closely and make a decision sometime after the holidays. Also, due to the difficulty with the last biopsy, he wants to hold off on another biopsy until we absolutely need to go ahead.
Since our last visit, and unexpected admission, Eric has been continuing to have headaches. They come on quickly and quite acute. It has me a bit worried. His doctor did a good exam today and everything is looking pretty good, but he said if these keep up we might need to do a head scan and LP (lumbar puncture) to rule out the cancer having crossed the blood-brain barrier. For now, he says to just have a good holiday and we'll worry about that later.
Meanwhile, Joel, who was sick a couple weeks ago and then better with just a lingering cough, seems to be sick again. He is feeling miserable and has a low fever. We were supposed to go to a Christmas Eve Open House tonight but Joel is sick and Eric is cranky after a long day at the hospital, so I think we'll be taking it easy tonight. Wish us all a better day tomorrow!
Merry Christmas to all our family, friends and neighbours. Thank you all for supporting us as we continue on this long and difficult journey. We wish you all a very happy and healthy Christmas!
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