Happy 4th of July 2012
Here is an update on Jodi's progress.
Last Thursday 06/28/12 she was infused with her own stem cells. These are pure undifferentiated cells that will take home in her bone marrow and receive signals to grow and differentiate into New Bone Marrow. A true miracle.
She is now at day 6 and we are watching her White Blood Cells (WBC) drop down. We want her to go to 0.0 WBC's. Once she hits 0.0 her body will then signal the stem cells to start differentiating and grow into new healthy bone marrow.
GOOD NEWS:
Here is how she has been progressing:
6/29 WBC's: 3.9
6/30 WBC's: 1.3
7/01 WBC's: 1.0
7/02 WBC's: 0.5
7/03 WBC's: 0.3
7/04 WBC's: 0.0
This is excellent news!
She hit 0.0 2 days earlier than her last transplant which is a great prognostic indicator. Now we watch the stem cell graft take hold and start to work. If all goes well we will see a steady climb in her WBC count. Usually it takes a few days to start working and for the new healthy bone marrow to produce new WBC's.
Last time around she was very sick and out of it completely and it took longer for her WBC's to hit 0.0 and 7 - 10 days to grow and develop new WBC's back to a normal level of ~4.0. Once she hits a normal WBC level and remains afebrile then she will get to leave the hospital.
Last time around she hit WBC count of 0.0 of day 8 of transplant and was at a normal WBC level on day 15 and then discharged on day 17.
This time she hit 0.0 at day 6 and we watch now and wait and see. If she continues on her current path she could hit a normal WBC in the next week or so and then hopefully be discharged a couple of days later.
She is doing very well!!
Thank you for all of the love and support.
She is positive and doing well but she is still sick and dealing with the side effects from the chemotherapy.
A brief explanation of why these chemotherapy drugs cause certain side effects:
First she received a poison that shut her immune system down and essentially turned her worsening bone marrow off. This is the medication that has so many bad side effects. It attacks rapidly dividing cells. Most cancers are rapidly dividing cells, growing out of control. They have lost the ability to be inhibited by the body.
Cancer cells are a lot like teenagers, they have lost all inhibition and just ignoring all the signals to stop, the cells like teenagers, think they know everything and the rebel cells keep dividing and growing.
The medication recognizes rapidly dividing cells and stops the growth.
This is good and bad because we have normal cells in our body that are not cancerous but still rapidly divide. For example, the tissue linking our mouths and entire gastrointestinal tract are all rapidly dividing cells. This is why mouth injuries heal very quickly. The cells are constantly replacing themselves with new cells. The chemotherapy that Jodi receives not only attacks the rapidly dividing cancer cells in her bone marrow but also attacks her normal rapidly dividing cells in her mouth GI tract, hair etc. Hence the noxious side effects.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Updates On Jodi's Treatment 2nd Transplant
I will first start off by saying that this is not the easiest disease, treatment plan to explain. I figured I would update the blog to help clear up any confusion and hopefully answer any questions that you may have.
#1 Is Jodi's cancer back? Has she relapsed?
Answer = Kind of....? Jodi's health has not been as good as it is right now in a long time however at her last round of check ups 3 months ago there were a few lab tests that suggested she might be headed for a relapse. Now at her most recent check up here in June more tests came back that put her right up to the edge of relapse. Really at this point it is like splitting hairs to say relapse or still in remission. A better way to think about it is that, she is in the beginning of a relapse or on her on her way to relapse.
The doctors all know if nothing is done she will be in full blown relapse at her next round of check ups in 3 months. The decision was made to go ahead and treat her aggressively now rather than wait for the disease to progress any further. She is actually much healthier now than when she went through the first autologous bone marrow transplant.
Her options after the last round of lab results were: 1. Do nothing and wait and see. 2. Start more aggressive chemotherapy and wait to do a second bone marrow transplant or 3. Go straight to the second bone marrow transplant.
She opted for choice 3 which in her case, is the best option. She actually has already started the process and so far, she is doing well. She is a lot healthier than when she had her first bone marrow transplant which is a good indicator for how she will do. She is hitting the disease before it has had the chance to cause full blown relapse. This is an aggressive approach and considered to be part of a trend in treating cancers. Doctors have been moving away from the "wait and see" and then use the bone marrow transplant as a last effort treatment when all other options have been exhausted.
In Multiple Myeloma patients who are fortunate enough to be able to receive autologous bone marrow transplants, only have enough stem cells to do a total of 2 transplants after the second transplant they fight any relapses with a variety of different chemotherapies and other treatments. Many studies have shown that hitting the cancer fast and hard with 2 bone marrow transplants prior to full relapse provides better longterm outcomes. This is called a Tandem Transplant. In cases where patients receive a 2nd transplant after they have been in full blown relapse and battled the cancer with many different chemotherapies the 2nd transplant is called a Salvage Transplant.
Given Jodi's good health and much stronger disposition as compared to her 1st transplant, her doctors think that the best approach for her now is to proceed with the 2nd transplant and she should respond well and actually tolerate it better than she did the first time as her cancer was significantly more advanced at that time. In fact her numbers now, had they been the numbers when she was first diagnosed would probably cause the doctors to not do any treatment and just watch and see if the disease progressed. However since we know that she is on the path to full relapse they want to stop the progression in it's tracks.
This is a rather brief overview of what Jodi is going through but hopefully it sheds some light on her condition and the current treatment plan.
She has already received her first dose of big chemo that will take her white blood cells to 0 and is now admitted into the "bubble" while she waits for her immune system to shut off. Once this occurs they will transplant the new bone marrow and wait for it to take it's effect and replace any and all of the diseased bone marrow. She has had her bone marrow biopsy which was very good compared to her first biopsy, her port has been placed and the chemo has been administered. She will most likely lose her hair again and have a month or longer of some long days in the hospital. Then she will be discharged and receive outpatient therapy for a few weeks / 1 - 2 months and most like be able to return to Colorado after the process is complete.
Ed has been here by her side every step of the way and Jodi has been tough as always. She is a fighter and doing well.
Feel free to share this post and blog and I will update it from time to time with information as it becomes available.
Thanks,
Jared
#1 Is Jodi's cancer back? Has she relapsed?
Answer = Kind of....? Jodi's health has not been as good as it is right now in a long time however at her last round of check ups 3 months ago there were a few lab tests that suggested she might be headed for a relapse. Now at her most recent check up here in June more tests came back that put her right up to the edge of relapse. Really at this point it is like splitting hairs to say relapse or still in remission. A better way to think about it is that, she is in the beginning of a relapse or on her on her way to relapse.
The doctors all know if nothing is done she will be in full blown relapse at her next round of check ups in 3 months. The decision was made to go ahead and treat her aggressively now rather than wait for the disease to progress any further. She is actually much healthier now than when she went through the first autologous bone marrow transplant.
Her options after the last round of lab results were: 1. Do nothing and wait and see. 2. Start more aggressive chemotherapy and wait to do a second bone marrow transplant or 3. Go straight to the second bone marrow transplant.
She opted for choice 3 which in her case, is the best option. She actually has already started the process and so far, she is doing well. She is a lot healthier than when she had her first bone marrow transplant which is a good indicator for how she will do. She is hitting the disease before it has had the chance to cause full blown relapse. This is an aggressive approach and considered to be part of a trend in treating cancers. Doctors have been moving away from the "wait and see" and then use the bone marrow transplant as a last effort treatment when all other options have been exhausted.
In Multiple Myeloma patients who are fortunate enough to be able to receive autologous bone marrow transplants, only have enough stem cells to do a total of 2 transplants after the second transplant they fight any relapses with a variety of different chemotherapies and other treatments. Many studies have shown that hitting the cancer fast and hard with 2 bone marrow transplants prior to full relapse provides better longterm outcomes. This is called a Tandem Transplant. In cases where patients receive a 2nd transplant after they have been in full blown relapse and battled the cancer with many different chemotherapies the 2nd transplant is called a Salvage Transplant.
Given Jodi's good health and much stronger disposition as compared to her 1st transplant, her doctors think that the best approach for her now is to proceed with the 2nd transplant and she should respond well and actually tolerate it better than she did the first time as her cancer was significantly more advanced at that time. In fact her numbers now, had they been the numbers when she was first diagnosed would probably cause the doctors to not do any treatment and just watch and see if the disease progressed. However since we know that she is on the path to full relapse they want to stop the progression in it's tracks.
This is a rather brief overview of what Jodi is going through but hopefully it sheds some light on her condition and the current treatment plan.
She has already received her first dose of big chemo that will take her white blood cells to 0 and is now admitted into the "bubble" while she waits for her immune system to shut off. Once this occurs they will transplant the new bone marrow and wait for it to take it's effect and replace any and all of the diseased bone marrow. She has had her bone marrow biopsy which was very good compared to her first biopsy, her port has been placed and the chemo has been administered. She will most likely lose her hair again and have a month or longer of some long days in the hospital. Then she will be discharged and receive outpatient therapy for a few weeks / 1 - 2 months and most like be able to return to Colorado after the process is complete.
Ed has been here by her side every step of the way and Jodi has been tough as always. She is a fighter and doing well.
Feel free to share this post and blog and I will update it from time to time with information as it becomes available.
Thanks,
Jared
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