Thursday, September 27, 2012

100% DONE

CD3+: All cells (100%) had 2 X signals, reflecting the donor sex
chromosome complement.

CD33+: All cells (100%) had 2 X signals, reflecting the donor sex
chromosome complement.

This means Alex has 100% donor cells - it confirms that we are DONE, DONE, DONE!!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

One Year Later

Lymphoma: Done

Chemo: Done

Leukemia: Done

Chemo 2.0: Done

Radiation: Done

Bone Marrow Transplant: Done

Anti-Rejection Medications: Done

Antibiotics: Done

Antivirals: Done

One Year Post Transplant Bone Marrow Aspiration: Done

Cancer: DONE DONE DONE

I always asked myself, when I would end this blog - I just stopped writing a while ago, and just couldn't bring myself to write about how I was feeling.

I also had this irrational superstition that I would "jinx" his recovery if I wrote about how incredible his recovery has been.

We are now one year post-transplant. Today, Alex had a ton of blood drawn for the myriad of tests they do on this anniversary clinic visit. They check the thyroid, his hormones, his blood counts, his antibodies, his cholesterol, his genetic markers, you name it, they test it.

We will know the results in about a week. I will update with results as soon as I can. I hope to be viewing the monitor through tears of joy.

This has been such a long road - it is hard to think that it has been almost 4 years since this nightmare started. It is hard to believe that Alex is just a "normal" kid now.

We will still visit the clinic four times a year (every three months), and he will get an echo-cardiogram once a year. Alex is also being referred for a full neuro-psych test to get a base line of his cognitive skills, which will be very useful as we discover the full long-term effects of his treatment.

While we are DONE with cancer, I am not ready to close up the blog - I will update from time to time, as this story isn't really ever over, is it?