Neutrophils Continue to Recover

            The answer to my therapist’s question yesterday, “What’s happening?” was “Nothing.” He pointed out to me that after the 6 months we’ve had, that is great news. It is, but the waiting for news is exhausting.

            David has recovered from the high dose cytarabine chemo. He’s nowhere near the level of an active Army medic, but we’ve revised our metric over the past half year.

David’s white blood count (WBC) has continued to rise:

September 18: .7

September 22: 1.3

September 25: 1.6

In about a week, if the neutrophils, first responders of the immune system, continue to increase, they will do another bone marrow biopsy. Then we’ll wait for the results to come back.

            The molecular results from the last biopsy showed no AML-ITD, the original mutation found at the end of March. AML-TKR (tyrosine kinase receptor) and RAS are now present. If remission has not been achieved by the donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), which was performed September 11^th, we’ll see what our options are. Admission to a clinical trial requires a higher ejection ratio, which would indicate that his heart is continuing to recover from the daunorubicin chemo back in April and May.

            In happier news, Jim and I are going on a Road Scholar tour, “New England Railroads”, for a week, starting Sunday evening. We’ll hear lectures from local historians and ride old-fashioned railroads in Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire (to ascend Mount Washington on the famous Cog Railroad), and Cape Cod. Since fall colors move down from the north, we’ll travel from Connecticut, where the first reds and oranges are just appearing, to the famous Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire. I’ve always wanted to experience that road in the fall, and we’ll be in a “motor coach”, with no driving duties at all. On NewHampshire.com the report for September 24 was that “the colors are really beginning to pop”.

            Thank you to all our friends who have volunteered to be “on call” in the unlikely event that David needs medical care in our absence, both during our whirlwind drive to Perrysburg, Ohio, last weekend and this New England trip. We’re grateful for everyone’s love, support, and prayers.