KESJ: 17 September 2009

Friday, September 18, 2009

17 September 2009

Jeremy's had a short play in the morning, and then slept for a bit around lunchtime. The doctors came by to examine him, and noticed that the mucositis is starting to appear more obvious. There are times when he shows some discomfort when swallowing. The pain doctor has been around, and they have written up some higher strength pain killers (morphine will be available on IV if required), however, he seems to be coping with the oxycodeine for now. Let's hope he doesn't need the painkillers as this will almost certainly cause blockage and they are loathe to supply laxatives in his current condition.

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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.