KESJ: 23 September 2009

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

23 September 2009

T+8
During playtime today, he got the play therapist to help him paint a glittery dinosaur, and then had her read a book to him. She brought over a little wheelchair for his Baby and he happily pushed it around the room. Jeremy was quite pleased, as he explained that Baby needs a wheelchair because Baby has no legs! Wanna see what Baby looks like? Well, Jeremy's baby looks like this one, but it has a central line taped to the chest, as well as a nasogastric tube stuck to its nose. Use your imagination and click here.

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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.