Posted by Tyler First of all I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. Mine went well. I'm really looking forward to Christmas though, when the entire family is going to be around. That will be a good time. I wanted to wait until I got the final bone marrow biopsy results, before I posted again, and this morning I got a call from the hospital and heard the good news. I am in remission again. They weren't able to see any leukemic cells in the preliminary or final results of the biopsy, and the analysis of the marrow showed that it consisted of 100% of Vanessa's cells. This part was very unexpected, because during my last clinic appointment with the doctor, he told me that with a low intensity transplant like the one I had, he would be happy to see just 25% of Vanessa's cells at first. That percentage would then gradually increase over time. So the fact that her cells are all that are present in the marrow is pretty great news. I don't know what all of the future implications of that are, but I am happy with the way things are going so far. The short-term prognosis is good. As of last week, I started tapering my rejection medication and by next week, I should be completely off of it. Then I'm hoping to get some chronic Graft v. Host Disease, which in small amounts can actually be helpful. In the long run it could serve as the outward sign that Vanessa's bone marrow is killing off any remaining or dormant leukemic cells. It's kind of the key behind the protocol of the low intensity treatment. Let the Graft v. Host Disease kill the leukemia since my type doesn't respond well to chemotherapy. Other good news that just goes along with everything else is that all of my blood counts are steadily increasing. Just last week, my bone marrow began producing platelets on its own, meaning that I am no longer dependent on blood transfusions, which I had been needing two to three times a week. Consequently, I am able to downgrade to just one clinic appointment a week, which is much easier on me. In addition to Project Don't Die, I've been playing with my niece and nephew a bunch. Because of my lack of hair, I wear hooded sweatshirts all of the time to keep my bald head warm, and for some reason the strings on the sweatshirt remind the kids of reins for a horse, so I spend a great deal of the day playing horsey and being led around on all fours by Maizie and Bryton. I've also been feeling motivated to do some work on my website. I've recently uploaded a slideshow of the awards ceremony at the Heartland Film Festival. I'll be uploading my acceptance speech soon as well. You can find this all on the new Well, that's it for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope to post again before Christmas, but if not, Merry Christmas everyone. Tyler
on 12/9/2002, 7:51 pm
Message modified by board administrator 2/7/2003, 9:37 am
Hey everyone,
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