One Down...One To Go

We are technically done with round one. Adam's counts have come up nicely and he has been fever-free for about five days now. He is eating very well and he's very anxious to get out of the room. We are just waiting to hear what comes next. The results from his bone marrow aspiration came back and showed that Adam is not yet in remission, but he is close. He has 7% blasts (cancer cells) in his marrow and the doctors want to see 5% or under. We have been keeping our fingers crossed that we will get a break at home for a few days, but they are still trying to decide what the best course of action will be. Hopefully that will include a break at home, but we'll see. On the bright side, Adam is feeling much better and doing well and that's the most important thing.

We had the opportunity to go to Children's National Medical Center where Adam will receive his transplant. It was an interesting experience. We met with Adam's doctor and talked for a long time about the procedure and what to expect. We then met with the nurse coordinator and went on a tour of the unit. We were able to see a patient room on the transplant unit. All in all, it seems very nice. It was interesting to me to note that I actually felt "homesick" for Inova Fairfax Hospital where we have received all of our treatment so far. I am sure we will get to know the nurses and the doctors downtown, too, but I sure will miss everyone here.

It sounds like the transplant will go much like a regular round of chemotherapy. We will receive eight or nine days of chemotherapy that will irreversibly wipe out Adam's ability to fight infection, then one day "off", then the day after that he will receive the bone marrow transplant through his central line just as if they are giving him his usual blood transfusion. Then we wait for counts from the new marrow to recover and hope that we don't have many complications, i.e. Graft vs. Host Disease. We were told this process generally takes about six to eight weeks.