Andrew was diagnosed with Erythroid (M6) Acute Myeloid Leukemia on November 4th, 2010 when he was almost 5 months old. Andrew is currently in remission from his cancer, after finishing his 5 rounds of chemotherapy. He is a healthy, happy toddler.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

"Some" Blasts

We went in for an LP (lumbar puncture), an aspirate (a sample of the bone marrow), an intrathecal administration of ARA-C (a chemo put into the spine), and an ECHO today (to test his heart). This is all very standard procedure, and Andrew went in and out like it was no big deal. One of the doctors said she would do a quick smear for a look-see to see how many blasts, if any, that Andrew had. A smear means that you take a sample, whether blood or marrow, and "smear" it on a slide.

Next to the cytogenetics, this has probably been the time that I've been the most anxious. The doctor called Stew on the phone and said that she saw some blasts on the slide. Some? Some, a lot? Some some? Some, just every once in a while? Man, I wish I'd had the phone...

It's probably best that I didn't get to talk to her and that I wait for pathology to give us a percentage tomorrow. Since Andrew has blasts in his marrow, he's not in full remission, but they really don't expect that with AML, and certainly not after the first round. I'm really still holding out hope that "some" means less than 5%, which is the cutoff for remission in AML patients.

Andrew has been a tad bit cranky today, but I don't blame the kid. He's cutting his first couple of teeth :).
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  1. Emily SteeleDecember 17, 2010 at 9:49 AM

    We can relate to the anxious feeling while waiting to see how successful that first round of chemo was. You're smart to just hold out for the pathology report--the hard part is waiting for the "official' word. We will continue to pray for less than 5% blasts for little Andrew. Are they still admitting him sometime this week? Hope that Stew's finals went well!

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