KESJ: 15 September 2012

Saturday, September 15, 2012

15 September 2012

Thank God for 3 years post transplant!

Jeremy and Stephanie celebrated with their cousins at Wizzy World after school yesterday, and today they enjoyed going to the Willoughby Spring Fair and watching the parade. But it had been an extremely busy week at school and all the excitement caught up to him at dinner tonight, when he spiked a fever of 38.1. Thinking back, we are thankful we no longer have to rush him to hospital whenever he has a fever - we can just give him Panadol and let him rest at home!

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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.