fantabulous news!

Yesterday I got home from taking my college aged son for his biannual shopping trip to find a fantabulous message from my doctor in Stanford: The results of the chimerism test test came back and the last white blood cell line that was lagging a bit is up to 98% donor cells! the transition to donor cells is essentially complete! hurray.

to explain the best i can, Stanford is testing the diagnostic value of this test, so officially it has no real meaning yet. Still their data show that folks who have had a non-myleoblative stem cell transplant like me are much more likely to avoid return of their cancer if all the lymphocytes convert to being produced by donor stem cells. a person can feel fine and do well concerning recovery and graft vs host disease etc while existing with both their own cells and the donor cells. but for the procedure i had relies on the donor cells being aggressive enough to wipe out all my stem cells and replace the workhorses throughout my body. the lymphocytes are the last to convert because they are made mostly in the lymph system not the bone marrow, and the particular B cell line that was lagging for me is  the last to convert because it's what's being suppressed by the immunosuppressants.

So this last line of B cells was at 85% from my last chimerism test. The Dr. Miklos had already explained to us about what we would do if it did not come up by 6 months or so. It involved chemo like treatments and a stay in the hospital of about a week. even better, i'd get to do it in a Kaiser hospital not Stanford (sarcasm dripping).

Having this possibility looming has not been pleasant, and so i'm ecstatic to learn that even before the 6 months is up (this Friday i believe), my results from the visit on the 15th showed 98% which is complete from Stanfords point of view!
yeah!!!!

I'm grateful for the wonderful medical progress i've made and the fine care from Stanford the Kaiser has paid for.
kayla