Childhood Cancer . Childhood Leukemia
Thursday, after reeling from the news of his labs from the prior day, BJ and I were so nervous going to back to clinic. Walking into the building was a daunting task. We talked each other up as we made that walk together.
It was an hour and a half wait before someone finally came in to bring his lab results. When the door opened, and we saw Dr. Martin with a piece of paper, we both just held our breath for the bad news.
Dr. Martin told us that BJ’s white blood cell count was higher and he had called Dr. Grupp, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and founder of this treatment. He talked to Dr. Grupp about BJ’s situation, and the significant rise in his white blood cells. The lab values were now 35.7k white blood cells, and 91% leukemia blasts. ((Which means out of 35,700 white blood cells, 32,487 are leukemia.))
Dr. Grupp told Dr. Martin about a patient he once had, with a similar situation as BJ. That patient had the same spike in WBC a few days after the T-cell infusion, and actually climbed over 100K. ((100K is the value that Dr. Martin said was getting dangerous for other organs.))
Dr. Grupp said they waited and monitored the patient, and the the white blood cell count started to come down right before the 2-week mark. He advised Dr. Martin to wait the 2-weeks, and monitor BJ’s blood counts every day. If BJ’s WBC count goes too high, they will do pheresis to remove some of the cells.
Continued Rise in WBC count
On November 13, 2015 by Michelle LoveThursday, after reeling from the news of his labs from the prior day, BJ and I were so nervous going to back to clinic. Walking into the building was a daunting task. We talked each other up as we made that walk together.
It was an hour and a half wait before someone finally came in to bring his lab results. When the door opened, and we saw Dr. Martin with a piece of paper, we both just held our breath for the bad news.
Dr. Martin told us that BJ’s white blood cell count was higher and he had called Dr. Grupp, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and founder of this treatment. He talked to Dr. Grupp about BJ’s situation, and the significant rise in his white blood cells. The lab values were now 35.7k white blood cells, and 91% leukemia blasts. ((Which means out of 35,700 white blood cells, 32,487 are leukemia.))
Dr. Grupp told Dr. Martin about a patient he once had, with a similar situation as BJ. That patient had the same spike in WBC a few days after the T-cell infusion, and actually climbed over 100K. ((100K is the value that Dr. Martin said was getting dangerous for other organs.))
Dr. Grupp said they waited and monitored the patient, and the the white blood cell count started to come down right before the 2-week mark. He advised Dr. Martin to wait the 2-weeks, and monitor BJ’s blood counts every day. If BJ’s WBC count goes too high, they will do pheresis to remove some of the cells.
So, while the news was worse, we felt some relief, as there is a plan in place if the count goes into the danger zone before next Thursday.
Thank you for continuing to pray for those T-cells to multiply, and go on their seek and destroy mission all over BJ’s body.
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