KESJ: 20 February 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011

20 February 2011

T+523

Today marks 2 years from Date of Diagnosis!

This morning we were awakened to shouts of "Autobots, TRANSFORM!" - Jeremy and Stephanie were happily playing Transformers in his room!

We are continually thankful to see our little man running around "just like any other little boy", and sometimes it seems that our year in hospital happened so long ago!

Thinking back - if Jeremy had been a "standard" case of ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia) and not his "high risk" case, he would only just be finishing his maintenance chemo as the standard treatment for ALL is 2 years!

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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.