KESJ: 27 October 2009

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

27 October 2009

6 weeks today!

Jeremy spent the day at hospital washing his dinosaurs and playing playstation, while the doctors and dietician continued to work on his blood electrolyte balance. He was glad to have a surprise visit from BaBa, and wanted to share a tuna and toast sandwich with him for lunch!

Since switching back to Neocate for his nasogastric feeds, his poo problems have almost been resolved - tonight he is going to try 50% Neocate and 50% Isosource, and hopefully this has no adverse effect on his gut!

We are thankful that his throat swab from Saturday came back clear, which means his cough is not caused by a bacterial or fungal infection. Although he is still coughing, it seems to be less each day.

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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.