Wed, 22 Oct 2003

G vs H

Hey there. It's Weds night and Jade had a BMT appt earlier today so here's the weekly update.

The most major news is that he is showing signs of graft vs host disease. He still has the transient rash I've mentioned previously (red patches on arms/abdomen and dryness/flaking) which is now appearing to be more indicative of graft vs host rather than medicinal. Additionally there are some faint white lines in his mouth (which look like spider webs) which seems to be early telltale symptoms. One part of his white count is elevated which is also typical of graft vs host.

The BMT clinic is happy about this development while Jade is understandably a little apprehensive and nervous. It seems the pattern for our lives this year has been one horrible week, one recovery week followed by a semi ok week. He doesn't want to start into another "down" period which could involve hospitalizations but we know he has to have some graft vs host disease to engage the graft vs tumor effect.

As far as down the road and what happens from here is this: Jade will have his chymerism tested next Fri, 31 Oct (Day 56) and we'll see what the Jade/Jared ratio is (they want 80% Jared and 20% Jade) and on that day they will start to take him off his final immune suppresion drug (cyclosporine) 20% at a time so he'll be off by approx Day 74. We will watch to see how Jade's body reacts to being off the cyclosporine in conjunction with battling graft vs host disease. 1/3 of people come through graft vs host just fine and 1/3 end up dying from complications of it. The middle 1/3 battles it out and half of them get better and the other half die. So, really it comes down to 50%-50%.

We take heart and courage in the thought that everything that could go our way till now has. Jade has done amazingly well up to this point. He remains very positve and focused. I think though, we both have a little anxiety as we wait and watch.

So, the next update will be on Halloween but keep in mind the results from the chymerism test are usually 7 to 10 days out. Until then.......have a wonderful week searching pumpkin patches for the Great Pumpkin and don't forget to sneak some candy early for yourself! Take care and thanks again for your faith and hope and encouragement!

Much love.......................Tanya and co.