We have received some calls and emails asking how things were going. At first I was excited because you were calling, then I started to feel I was letting everyone down by not keeping up with the daily posts on the blog. So I went to the garage and found a 100 feet of 1/2" nylon rope and tied Jody to a chair... JUST KIDDING!
Last week was so on and off... We had our normal Monday, Wednesday, Friday appointments and at each appointment we asked for the results of the bone marrow biopsy (see Day Plus Twenty-Eight... I also talk about it in Day Plus Thirty-One). Each day we asked and there were no results and I would put off writing the blog. Sorry! The bone marrow biopsy was done on Thursday, August 26 and we finally got all of the results. YES! Just like the earlier test had confirmed Jody has engrafed and over 95% of the stem cells found in her bone marrow are from her donor. That means less than 5% is her own stem cells. In addition, the biopsy confirmed that she had less than 4 percent blast cells. This is good. I wrote about her disease in one of my earlier posts, in case you forgot, here it is again.
Jody's disease (Myelofibrosis) is a high-risk MDS (Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is a term that is used to describe a group of cancers of the blood and marrow). Jody had immature cells called "blast cells" that made up less than 10 percent of the cells in her marrow (per her February 11th bone marrow biopsy). In Jody's June biopsy (after taking 30 days of chemo) she showed no increase in blasts cells from the February biopsy. Normally, blast cells make up less than 5 percent of all the cells in the marrow and they can develop into normal blood cells. In Jody, the blast cells that were being made would not develop into normal red cells, white cells and platelets. This decrease in blood cell counts (red cells, white cells and platelets) leads to; anemia or low red cell count, neutropenia or low white blood cells, and thrombocytopenia or low platelet count. People with more than 20 percent blast cells in the marrow cells are considered to have acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Jody was headed in that direction. MDS is sometimes called "smoldering leukemia," or "preleukemia." MDS is a diagnosis of cancer. The term "cancer" means that a change to a normal cell leads to the development of abnormal cells.
Jody has shown some GVHD (Graft vs Host Disease) on her body in the form of a rash. This is good because it further indicates her donor cells are beginning to take hold of her immune system. The doctors wanted to confirm the rash was GVHD so they wanted to do a biopsy. When Jody had her bone marrow biopsy done (under sedation) she also had a biopsy of the skin on her leg. The results came back confirming it was GVHD, so the doctors put her on Prednizone, which is a steroid. The Prednizone drug sedates her immune system's attack and eventually the attack will subside.
I hope everyone is as excited as we are with the news...
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