Making Progress

Day +26 (D 164)





Hello everyone, I have some good news. Ann's counts have jumped up to normal levels as you can tell from the above embedded charts. Her WBC and ANC count reached the normal range for an adult human being for the first time today, and she has been taken off of neupogene until further notice. Hurray!

Most of the doctors, PA and nurses we ask about our relative progress continue to express skepticism about cord blood engrafting so quickly. Patients are normally at day +40 or +50 at the point we are at now. I'm not going to jump to conclusions as Ann might be an outlying data point. But it would be really great if the expanding technique that was used for Ann transplant really help give lots of people chances they wouldn't have had before. A doctor acquaintance (not from MDA) is expecting SCT to be an exciting feild to be in based on our experience.

Tomorrow Ann will be starting the CMV study and there is no word on weather we will be getting mabavivar(sp) or a placebo. However, MDA is going to be drawing extra blood each week and doing a high resolution molecular study to look for any occurrence of CMV. The benefit of which should be that we get a very early warning of the virus if it shows up. Which means we will have a chance to treat it early before it reaches the point that it might endanger Ann's new cell graft.

Tomorrow is more of the same, clinic visits, IV Fluids and more magnesium, but we are making progress.