KESJ: May 2011

Friday, May 20, 2011

20 May 2011

T+612

Thank God that the results of Jeremy's last bone marrow aspirate were MRD Negative!!!

His next bone marrow aspirate will be on 17 August 2011.

The immunologist is pleased with Jeremy's peanut progress, and told us that he no longer has to have a daily dose of peanuts. As long as he eats about 4 to 8 peanuts a week, his immune system should be fine.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

15 May 2011

T+607

Hooray! Jeremy is 20 months today!

We are thankful that this weekend we were able to share in his excitement of attending 2 of his school friends' birthday parties (1 on Saturday afternoon, and 1 today after church), and to see him come home so pleased with all the enjoyable things that he did and the delicious food that he ate. It makes us especially glad when he is so happy!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

11 May 2011

T+603

A while ago, Jeremy had asked BaBa to take him to his next bone marrow aspirate, and was very pleased when BaBa arranged to take the day off work to drive him to hospital today. Although he was again last on the general anaesthetic list (because of his ESBL), Jeremy didn't complain and played iPad, cooking toys and Lego while he was waiting. Thankfully, his turn came at 11.30am - nearly an hour earlier than the previous time.

Jeremy wanted BaBa to hold the "happy gas" mask while he drifted off into his "special medical sleep". This time there were no problems when he woke up, and he made the nurses envious with his delicious smelling breakfast/morning tea/lunch of chicken burger and hot chips from the hospital cafe.

We will hopefully know the results of his bone marrow aspirate sometime next week, and his next bone marrow aspirate has been scheduled for Wednesday 17 August 2011.

In relation to his daily peanut dose, Jeremy has surprised us by suddenly declaring that he will eat 3 Peanut M&Ms every morning - and then proceeding to do so, chocolate and all!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

4 May 2011

T+596

The immunologist has increased Jeremy's peanut dose from 1 to 2 peanuts per day. She wants to keep him on 2 peanuts per day for about 6 months, and then do another skin prick test. And Jeremy is happy to eat roasted peanuts instead of Peanut M&Ms - he calls his peanuts "my medicine"!

Next Wednesday he will have another bone marrow aspirate - please pray that the results will be MRD Negative.

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.

KESJ