Good News

Two bits of good news to share with everyone. First of all, they think Chris just strained his back lifting a little doggie over a fence. That means the pain is musculoskeletal and will get better.

Secondly, his latest blood results show 0% blasts in the blood. This could mean that he is in his first complete remission!!! They will do a bone marrow biopsy to confirm that there aren't any blasts in the marrow as well. So, the next step for someone who doesn't have an HLA-matched stem cell donor is to undergo an autologous (meaning "self") stem cell transplant. I will include links to two sites that do a pretty good job of explaining the details. The protocol at MD Anderson may not be exactly the same as at these two sites, but they give pretty good general details. We will let you know when we learn more.

Christy

http://patient.cancerconsultants.com/stemcell_treatment.aspx?id=947

http://www.cancercenter.com/stem-cell/stem-cell-autologous.cfm

Update on Dad

Well Dad just got his blood work back from last night and his blast count is at 2%. This is VERY good. It has never been below 6%.

He is still in the hospital because of his back. They did a MRI last night but they are still waiting on the results. More updates as I get them

By the way, Trevor's hair looks really red in the pictures. It really isn't that red, just looks that way. :) I know we don't have any red hair in the family.

--rm

Brushing his Teeth

Here is another great time to show off our little boy. We started brushing his teeth (actually gums) every once in a while. Our dentist says that is can help the teeth come in straighter. Here are some picts of the fun times. He is getting pretty big and his hair is still out of control.






Here is Christy and our "little man cub". :)


--rm

Update

First of all, wanted to let everyone know that Chris was hospitalized yesterday because of severe back pain. His pain is improved today and they aren't quite sure what is causing it but they think it might be a herniated disc. X-ray was normal and he will be getting an MRI probably on Monday.

As far as the SAHA is concerned, I'm not sure what everyone wants to know. It is chemotherapy like all of it is. This one supposedly targets tumor suppressor genes (I guess in cancerous cells) and increases their expression. Tumor suppressor genes are in all of us and usually work to prevent uncontrolled cell growth. Recent research has shown that these genes are often disabled in cancer and are prevented from being expressed (having the DNA read and the corresponding proteins made). So SAHA is one of a couple of drugs that works to reverse this.

The numbers look good. Now only if there was a stem cell donor...

Christy

Update 3/18/05

The SAHA must be working, the following is my latest bone marrow biopsy;

Hemoglobin: 9.0
Hematocrit: 24.9
B.U.N. 21
Creatinin 1.5
Blast Percent 7.0
Neutrophil absolute count 1.05

The rest are available if you really want them, the fatigue is the only big issue now, with a
back ache a close second.

Chris and Terri

SAHA Update 3/11/05

Well,
I was told one of the side-effects of this new chemo would be fatigue; they weren't kidding. Aside from being pretty much tired all the time, there are no appreciable side-effects.

I've been on this for a week now, the PA said she has a patient in his 6th go 'round with SAHA, so even if I'm not in remission at the end of this round, the protocol is simply repeated.

Other than that we're just dealing with the weather, it was so cold yesterday that Terri went swimming.

Dad and Terri