Today, Dad will get hooked up to his last bag of chemo and finish it tomorrow afternoon. Then we wait. One of the nurses came in and talked to Mom and I for a while this afternoon. She was very nice.
Basically, the bone marrow results from last week told us that my Dad's white blood cells (WBC) were 87% infected by the leukemia when he was admitted. That means that 87% of the WBC's were blasts, which are abnormal cells. I was pretty surprised to see that number, but then I was relieved that it wasn't worse too.
Since last week, on the chemo, they "estimate" that the blasts are down to 30% in his WBC. The reason I say "estimate" is that they are pulling those numbers from blood that is drawn through a port, not bone marrow (which is 100% accurate). The blood has circulated and so it isn't a perfect result.
The nurse also filled us in a little on what we face going forward. She said, depending on the bone marrow draw next Friday, we will either stay in the hospital another couple weeks while Dad's WBCs hopefully reproduce and build up his immune system that's completely destroyed right now, or we could start another round of chemo if the blasts are still there (potentially).
She also said, if we do reach remission and go home at the end of 28 days, Dad will get a break (a couple weeks) and then he'll have to check back in for another round of what we're doing right now (another 28 days). That was not what I expected to hear, but am glad for the reality check, so I know what is going to happen. That session of therapy (chemo round 2) is called consolidation.
Otherwise, Dad took a little jaunt through the halls (only one lap today). I think he was pretty tuckered from yesterday. They did give him some blood and platelets overnight to help sustain some of those numbers. He's doing okay. They are trying to wean him off the oxygen and have kept at the diuretics for the excess fluid (which he absolutely loves! Not).
Hang tough and much love!
No comments:
Post a Comment