Thu, 09 Oct 2003

45%

Hey there everybody. It's Thurs night and thought I'd give a quick update.

Jade went in for his weekly appt at BMT clinic today. He had the regular tests, blood draws and exams and additionally received the results from the chymerism test from last Friday Oct 3rd which was Day 28. Jade is at 45% Jared and 55% Jade. (The percentage is amount of Jared's stem cells permanently "engrafted" into Jade.) This is normal and about right on target. They said they wanted it to be 50-50 by Day 28 so this is good. They will test this again on Day 56 and they will hope it to be at 80% Jared and 20% Jade then.

All the rest of Jade's chemistry levels were within normal/acceptable ranges. We're still doing magnesium infusions at night and will do so for another month at least. Jade will start to taper off the cyclosporine (immune suppression drug) in another month - - actually on Day 56. They will reduce him by 20% every 5 days. Approximately Day 80 he should be off the cyclosporine.

Oh, hmmmm, sigh....what else did Jade learn today? They aren't sure what is causing the mild rash on his arms but are still leaning towards it being medication induced rather than signs of graft vs host disease but are definitely keeping an eye on it. Jade seems to be doing well all in all. He is shaving his neck every other day and his beard continues to fill in and thicken. I actually shaved the back of his neck this morning so it seems like he has a "defined" hair line/style now. (I know all y'all love to hear about personal grooming habits....we really don't have much pride left in this house after this year.)

Overall we're doing good and hanging tough. We're trying to find ways to have a "life" as we wait out the next three months watching for graft vs host disease. We do feel very fortunate to have a partial life though! We know things can always get worse......like eating hospital food. I try to remind myself often that a bad day at home is still better than a good day in the hospital.

Thanks for all your support, faith and encouragement. Take care...........

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