KESJ: 6 March 2010

Sunday, March 7, 2010

6 March 2010

T+172

Today, Jeremy managed to have a bit of a sleep-in (he was not the first child to crawl out of bed this morning!!). Surprisingly, we still got out of the house early to make a quick dash to get a pair of sports shoes for Stephanie.

Jeremy was given a special treat - he had his first Boost juice post-transplant. He was so excited about it, as it has probably been 9 months since he has had one. We bought them a large sized drink each to avoid fighting, and they slurped away at the drink all the way home.

After an early-ish lunch, the kids were able to run around and play, and we are thankful that Jeremy was still quite mobile despite his ankle being strapped.

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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.