Friday - 09/09/11 - Remission

So we got the results back from the bone marrow test from day 29 of Induction.  The smear (someone looking at it under the microscope) can back negative or they couldn't see any cancer cells.  The machine also came back as negative, where they couldn't see any cancer cells.  That means that Sarah is officially in remission.  That means that she is a rapid responder to the therapy.  Unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that she still has two years of treatment left.  We know that prayers and fasting helped to get Sarah where she is.  She was a high risk ALL diagnosed, and she is in remission after induction.  We think she is doing well.

Well, most of the time the good news comes with some not so good news.  The doctors here in Seattle feel like they should still treat Sarah as CNS positive.  What that would mean is that she would go through two rounds of Delayed Intensification rather than one in the coming years as well as going through a cranial radiation treatment.  I threw the fellow a curve, when I asked what the risks were if we decided against treating her as CNS positive.  You could tell it was the first time that someone had asked that.  We don't know what is best for Sarah and will pray about it.  We have time to decide as the treatment is the same for both paths.

We start Sarah on consolidation next week.  It is a different set of medications as well as a different schedule.  So next week, we will be at the clinic everyday from Tues through Saturday.  Tuesday will be Sarah's spinal tap and weekly appointment with the doctors.  Wednesday will be two drugs through the IV.  One they need to hydrate her, so we plan on spending ~6 hours in the clinic for that.  Thursday through Saturday will be about 90 minutes in the clinic and she only gets one medicine pushed through the IV.  Consolidation is a 64 day round and we do this 4 day medicine twice during it.  In the coming days, I will try to list out the medications that she will be getting and lay out the schedule more.

Thanks for you continued prayers and support.  We feel the love that you have for us.  We are grateful for all those who reach out and help from providing meals or watching the kids.