Big Day Tomorrow

On November 4, 2015 by Michelle Love

This boy.

Back at Duke Children’s clinic this morning to check BJ’s blood counts and chemistry. His platelet count is 17k, so he will be getting a unit. He’s feeling pretty good today. Just look at that smile. I love it!!

Tomorrow is the BIG day. BJ will get an infusion of his modified white blood cells… The 200,000 fighters who survived specialized training at Novartis. His very own special SEAL team that will go in and multiply, and wage war on every leukemia cell in his body. He will be the battleground. He has done everything he could do to help his body be ready to host this battle. It will be a very tough fight and the enemy will be slaughtered. The expected response to the cell infusion is a high fever, extreme flu-like symptoms, and could also be accompanied by low blood pressure and the need for oxygen.

The lab notified the docs here that there weren’t as many cells that grew in the lab as they had expected. The FDA goal for this study is 2 million cells. They were able to grow 200k of BJ’s cells. Not every study participant has received 2m cells, and they still saw amazing results. There were also participants that got 2m cells and didn’t achieve clinical remission. The 200k cells will be infused into his port line, and they should immediately start multiplying and attacking leukemia cells. BJ’s blood will be checked everyday for a while to see if the number of t-cells are increasing. What we want to see after 28 days, and what you can help us pray for is NED. We want NED…. NO evidence of disease.

Thank you for your continued prayers. We are going into this believing that it will work. And above all, we know that God has this.