KESJ: 8 March 2010

Monday, March 8, 2010

8 March 2010

T+174

Jeremy's skin is more susceptible to sunburn because he had chemo and TBI - he needs to cover up and use a high factor sunscreen whenever he goes outside. He has a tube of sunscreen in his classroom, and his kindy teacher tells us that he is very diligent in putting on his sunscreen before recess and lunch. When I had to go to school at lunchtime one day, I saw that his face still had white smears of sunscreen on it that he hadn't managed to rub in properly!

And of course, the school has a "no hat, play in the shade" policy.

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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.