KESJ: 27 April 2009

Monday, April 27, 2009

27 April 2009

Jeremy was supposed to have his 6-hour drip of Cyclophosphamide at hospital clinic today, but his blood counts were too low. Instead, he had to have a platelet transfusion and also a red blood cell transfusion. This was his first platelet transfusion, and the bag of platelets looked like murky orange cordial! He had a bit of an allergic reaction to the platelets, but he was fine after he was given some Hydrocortisone. Jeremy will go back to hospital clinic on Thursday to see if his blood count is OK for his Cyclophosphamide treatment.

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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.