KESJ: 1 July 2010

Thursday, July 1, 2010

1 July 2010

T+289

Jeremy had to miss the school Athletics Carnival today, because he spiked a fever of 38.5 in the middle of the night. This was very disappointing for him, as he had been looking forward to the "Mathletics" (as he calls it!) Carnival for weeks. But he didn't complain about not being able to go - with his usual understanding and acceptance of such things, he just said that he would go next year.

On the other hand, his appetite seems to be slowly coming back - he chomped through 2 dry Weet Bix for breakfast this morning!

Hopefully he is all better for his bone marrow aspirate and next set of immunisations on Wednesday 7 July.

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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.