Better Day in 5 West

I couldn't update my blog last night, but David is doing much better than Saturday. The surgeon said the 2 CT scans showed nothing dangerous, so at this point there is no leakage of the small intestine and no need to do surgery. A doctor was pushing on his belly Sundatday and it didn't hurt, which is a HUGE change from  yesterday.

The oncologist, Captain McDuffee, who is the oncology fellow on David's case for the next month, had great news:

1.       The final analysis of the bone marrow biopsy shows complete remission!!!!!

2.      The cerebrospinal fluid didn't have leukemia cells or infection.

3.      An outside lab is doing some molecular analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid. Hopefully we'll get the results tomorrow.

4.      As soon as the surgeon okays it (that is when David has recovered enough from the surgery), they will start "consolidation" chemotherapy, as a bridge to maintain remission until the transplant can be set up.

5.      Dr. Mo, the main oncologist at Wrenmimic, knows an oncologist who does transplants at Dana Farber in Boston!!!! They've talked about David.

6.      As far as we know, everything is in place for the transplant to occur in Boston. They can't set a date for the transplant until #4 happens.

7.      David actually WENT OUTSIDE today, for the first time in 7 weeks. We wheeled him to the elevator and up to the 7th floor roof garden. Nothing fancy, but fresh air and sunshine. We stayed about 10 minutes, in the shade. David thought it was wonderful.

8.      David gets tired very easily.

9.      David was anemic, but had blood products yesterday and his blood levels are better today.

10.   David hasn't had solid food for over a week, but is starting to drink more calories today, so he should start getting stronger.

            He has some swelling, which is probably due to lack of albumin, a protein in the blood vessels that keeps fluid from leaking out of the vessels.