I apologize for not updating the blog before now but there just hasn't been much to report. That's a good thing, though. We like it when things are running along quietly.
CJ had a regularly scheduled trip to the clinic yesterday. He received his weekly chemo treatment, a bone marrow aspirate and a lumbar puncture. As I explained in my last post, these two tests will determine if the chemo treatments so far have the leukemia on the run. We probably won't have the results of these tests until his clinic visit next Monday. In the meantime, we're keeping our fingers crossed that everything turns out well. We want the concentration of immature white blood cells (the leukemia cells) in his bone marrow to be under 5%.
It breaks my heart to watch CJ maneuver around the house. His legs and hips ache and the weight he carries as a result of the steriods make it hard for him to breathe. He has a hard time getting comfortable in any position. I was watching him last night moving from his chair to the couch and he moved just like an old man - hunched over and unsteady on his feet. His feet are very swollen so his balance is a little off.
The doctors have taken him off of the steriods for this week. Yesterday was his 29th day of treatment. He must resume the steriod treatments on the 37th day, but we don't really know for how long this time. We know he will go on and off the steriods throughout the treatment program but we don't know the intervals and how long they will last. It may all depend on how he is responding overall.
His ANC counts were down to 1600 from last week's high of 2200. He was able to take advantage of last week's good counts and spend a little time Sunday at a Baumgart family gathering for cousin Jonathan's confirmation. (Congratulations, Jonathan! We love you and are very proud of you.)
This past Friday, several of us attended a Fillies Luncheon and Style Show, a fund raiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Several weeks ago I received an invitation to this luncheon from a college friend of mine. She was one of the organizers and thought the company I work for might be interested in sponsoring a table. She had no idea that CJ or ViviAnne had been diagnosed with leukemia. Rather than have the company sponsor the table, several members of my family attended with me. It was a wonderful event and one that I know we will support in the future.
That's really about all we have to report today. We'll be sure to let everyone know as soon as we have test results.
Love to all of you!
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