KESJ: 20 February 2009

Saturday, March 7, 2009

20 February 2009

This afternoon, Jeremy was admitted to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). He has to undergo a 2-year treatment of chemotherapy. By midnight, he had been subjected to a blood test, a lumbar puncture, a bone marrow aspirate, a chest X-ray and a blood transfusion, and 2 canulas had been inserted into his arms.

To find out more about ALL, go to the Leukaemia Foundation website at http://www.leukaemia.org.au/web/aboutdiseases/leukaemias_all.php.

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Definitions

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) - a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. ALL affects the type of developing white blood cells known as lymphocytes. It is the most common form of childhood leukaemia, and the most common type of childhood cancer. It also occurs in adults.

Blast cells - immature blood cells normally found in the bone marrow. Blast cells normally constitute up to 5% of all bone marrow cells. These cells divide and replenish all the normal blood cells in the marrow and circulating blood. Acute leukaemia is characterised by an accumulation of abnormal blast cells that take over the marrow and spill out into the blood stream.

Bone marrow transplant - the process of replacing bone marrow cells (stem cells) that are unhealthy, with stem cells that are healthy. The healthy stem cells are re-infused intravenously through the central line, after very strong chemotherapy and/or radiation to kill unhealthy stem cells. The re-infusion of healthy stem cells essentially rescues the patient from the chemotherapy and/or radiation, by enabling his or her bone marrow to start producing new blood cells.