KESJ: 8 May 2010

Saturday, May 8, 2010

8 May 2010

T+235

Jeremy woke up this morning with a snuffy nose and a slightly elevated temperature, which thankfully came down (and stayed down) after Panadol.

Otherwise, he was his usual active happy self and was so keen on going to the NSW Fire Station Open day that we agreed to take him for a short time. However, this year's Open Day was not as spectacular as the previous 2 years when we were allowed up in the cherry picker and into the front seat of the fire engine. This year there were no cherry picker rides and children were only allowed to crawl around the back seat of the fire truck. But Jeremy was happy to be able to hold the big fire hose (with the help of a fireman) as it squirted water into a small red pond.

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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.