July 30th - Day 15 of CD22 Protocol

Back to Boston today for more CD22 antibody.  We've got this down to science now - a good audio book, a couple rest stops for bathrooms and sodas, all  the way to Dana Farber without turning on the GPS!!

Ryan's labs are essentially the same as last week - which is a good thing.  His marrow is producing red blood cells, platelets and neutrophils (in Ryan's case these are non-cancerous, while the lymphocyes have become cancerous).  Don't know how well the "good" WBCs are working, as the physician assistant reminds us, but they are steady at 1500.  With prior chemo, the good cells were the first to go and the last to recover.  Now they aren't being affected by the CD22 antibody, while the lymphocytes have decreased and there are ZERO "blasts" - the immature cancers cells.

That doesn't mean there are no cancer cells in his body - the "differential", or "diff" for short, looks at which WBCs are present and expresses them as a percentage.  Just because there were no blasts identified in the cells that were counted doesn't mean there aren't some in his circulation, or in his marrow.

The chemo will be given in 4 week cycles:  "Pre-treatment" labs and marrow biopsy, followed by Chemo at 7 day intervals on Days 1, 8, 15, 22.  Then Day 29 is a follow-up marrow biopsy.

The protocol includes up to 6 cycles, or roughly 6 months, of the treatment.

My understanding is that once Ryan is in remission based on marrow results, they will proceed to CNS chemo, the stem cell transplant.

The transplant coordinator hasn't heard anything about Sean's HLA typing yet - she's going to check and call me on Wednesday.  I have such mixed feelings - they described Meghan as a "perfect" match and we're absolutely delighted about that.  When we were first seen by the transplant physician, he said that if 2 siblings are equal matches, they would prefer the male.  So part of me is hoping that Sean is also a match.  But as Meghan has so graciously pointed out, it will be easier for her to take time off work than it will be for Sean or Missy to be away from their families.

A little humor in this whole process - Sean and I were joking about being glad I had enough kids to have a "prefect" match.  Then Sean pointed out that if I had stopped at 4, I wouldn't be needing a donor.........

With a successful Youth Conference in the rear view mirror, I'm off to Minnesota to kick back and free load off my brother's family for a week. 

Uff da!!!  Off to Minn-a-SO-ta, you betcha dats fer sure!!!   (working on my scandahoovian)
---Barb