The waiting game

That was what Dr. Tomblyn proposed to Carol this past Monday. Wait until the end of January for another bone morrow biopsy.
Basically another bone morrow biopsy will be done by the end of this month so we can find out if the donor cells are also attacking Carol’s Leukemia cells, aside from last month’s very acute reaction on her skin that caused her to be readmitted to Moffitt for 6 days.

In theory, if the previous bone morrow biopsy was done while the donor cells were in the midst of causing such a reaction on her skin, Dr. Tomblyn’s opinion is that we probably should have postponed the biopsy to allow the donor cells to attack the most needed area. Carol’s bone morrow.
So, in the meanwhile, we are playing the waiting game, regular “biweekly” visits to her local oncologist for lab work until the 24th.

And talking about lab work. For the past weeks Carol’s blood counts for the white, red and platelets stayed +/- level. This past Monday her lab work showed a little increase on the platelets count, reaching 40. It’s not a huge increase, but since this is possibly a sign that Carol is making some of the platelets on her own, it is very encouraging.

One new discomfort area is now in Carol’s thighs and knees. It seems that there is some donor cells ongoing activity in the femur bones that could cause occasional aching pain. With Dr. Tomblyn’s approval, a couple of Tylenol pills can be taken to help with the pain, but only occasionally, otherwise there is a risk of masking a fever.

The past couples of weeks have been pretty busy with family visiting from far and close.
Cousin David flew in from Seattle to stay for a few days, Frankie and Sandy drove in from Boca to visit both, Carol and also David.
Cousin Howard and Gabriella from Colorado visited while in the area for a trade show.
Cousin Freddie is due to arrive to SRQ this afternoon for a week long visit.
Thank you again for all the calls, cards and emails giving Carol tons of encouragement.
Jaime