T38

Well, today we had a blood draw, a nutrition visit and a team visit.  It was a full day, and we were feeling pretty good until we visited with the doctors - then we got hit with the news. 

They said this "is not jump up and down news, but it's not give up hope news either".   They were wishing for more from Donor 2 than there is, but there is still time.  They were also wishing for less evidence of MDS.  We will continue on this course, testing on occasion, checking the trend as we go.  It's the trend that will tell us more about what is really happening.

The peripheral blood tells us that Donor 1 (Dennis) is 49% Lymphocytes, Donor 2 (new donor from Europe somewhere) is 19%, and Host (Terry) is 32%.    The myeloid cells are majority Donor 2, but that isn't the number they are looking for right now.

The knowledge they have at this point is leading them to consider what might be done next to help improve the chances of success with this transplant.  We will hold tight for the next couple weeks, with more medicine changes and watching what is taking place in the blood.  By the way - one more medication was added today and tomorrow morning we go in for an infusion of another.  They will then teach me how to infuse that medication and I will infuse it here at the apartment each day thereafter.  As they test and learn more about the trend they will make new decisions and we'll follow the course they plan for us.  We are trusting them, but mostly we are trusting God.

Good news is that his hydration has gone from 1500 to 1000 ml, so it's down to 4 hours again instead of 6 hours a day.  We don't know how long the medication will take to infuse, but that will probably add infusion time to our days.  More news tomorrow.

Terry explained todays news like this -
The rabbit is ahead, but it's early in the race, and our hope is the tortoise prevails. 

We'll let you know what we find out when we find out. For now -

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



image from here