Sunday, December 16, 2012

Bucky Update: 12/16/12

Hello Family,

We got the results from Bucky's last bone marrow biopsy--he is still in morphological remission, with 3% blasts.  For comparison, when he went in, in October he had 93% blasts.  What happens when it reaches 100?  I will tell you...I don't know.

Basically, had he been diagnosed 20 years ago they would say he is remission, but they have better ways of detecting leukemia now.  He still has some residual leukemia, so we are really counting on the transplant to take care of the rest.  That's called graft versus leukemia (GVL).

We want GVL because that means that the healthy new stem cells that Bucky gets from his brother will recognize the remaining leukemia and fight it off.

Bucky goes into the hospital early Wednesday morning to start radiation and some huge doses of cytoxan  (the chemo that is related to mustard gas).

After transplant, they will be looking for signs of infection and graft versus host disease.  (This would be his brother's T lymphocytes attacking Bucky's tissues.)  But, since they have 8 matching HLA types, we are hoping this will be minimal.

Thank you for your prayers and faith.  We know that Bucky is in the Lord's loving hands.

Love you all,
TJ

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