KESJ: 1 October 2009

Thursday, October 1, 2009

1 October 2009

T+16

Praise God that the doctors are happy with Jeremy's progress! They told us that Jeremy's fevers and rash on his body have been caused by the new bone marrow beginning to engraft, and have started him on a short course of steroids. Since his first dose of steroids yesterday, he has been afebrile! Hopefully, the steroids will also make his rash disappear, as he was itchy today and spent the day in a Phenergan-induced sleep! And hopefully, some white blood cells will make their appearance soon!

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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.