KESJ: 22 October 2009

Thursday, October 22, 2009

22 October 2009

T+37

Today was the official Windows 7 release day - not that it made any difference whatsoever to the little man (we are still running Vista). Besides, if you were at hospital and you asked Jeremy "Where do you want to go today?" - he'd probably say "home".

Anyway, Jeremy's counts were okay today, and he did not require blood products. He was allowed home today on the proviso that he drinks enough fluid (he has not been drinking much lately). He made a good effort, with the assistance of Sipahh straws.

1 comment:

Joshua Kuswadi said...: Tom and Sophie love the Sipahh straws. Jo's mum first discovered them, not sure where.; October 29, 2009 at 6:58 AM

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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.