Day 146
We have been through three days of meetings and tests at this point, culminating this afternoon with a spinal tap, to test whether leukemia has penetrated the brain, and John's seventh bone marrow test. We should get the results of both in 7 to 10 days. He has had blood drawn, platelets received, two dental exams, xrays, pulmonary and heart exams, a psychological study and will have a CAT scan and heart ultrasound in the morning.
We have now met with most of his team of doctors and nurses and I'm quite impressed. We spent an hour yesterday with the attending physician who will be in place up to the time of John's transplant. He was optomistic about John's prognosis. He used most of the same statistics others have recited: 8-10% of young recipients die during the first few months from failure of the transplant, acute graft-versus-host disease, infection or other complications. 20 to 30 % suffer relapse and don't recover, and so on. He said John had all the indicators of being in the ones left and he needed to do his part to make sure he was. 50/50 is all about the glass beingt half full or half empty.
We discussed chronic GVHD and its complications, as well as others, such as cataracts and secondary cancer caused by the chemotherapy. He added that if John is well in 18 to 24 months, he should consider himself as close to being "cured" as they use the term.
We were able to find John a new version of the Play Station 2 today, so he is sitting carefully on his bandages and playing games now. The Internet is up and Comcast is working simultaneously, so this is a good time to post recent news. Debbie and I are leaving shortly to handle dinner.
There is usually too much that needs doing to stop and realize how tired you are, but once in the morning and again at night, "reality" surfaces again. I got a mental boost yesterday from an article published concerning an informal survey of attention to privacy in businesses with an online presence. Cox was rated in the top 20. We probably would have been in the top 10, except for the fact that we lacked any seal of approval on our website from an independent rating group. The irony is that our standards were so high that the rating group couldn't figure out how to fit us within its qualifications.
Off now to deal with dinner.
We have now met with most of his team of doctors and nurses and I'm quite impressed. We spent an hour yesterday with the attending physician who will be in place up to the time of John's transplant. He was optomistic about John's prognosis. He used most of the same statistics others have recited: 8-10% of young recipients die during the first few months from failure of the transplant, acute graft-versus-host disease, infection or other complications. 20 to 30 % suffer relapse and don't recover, and so on. He said John had all the indicators of being in the ones left and he needed to do his part to make sure he was. 50/50 is all about the glass beingt half full or half empty.
We discussed chronic GVHD and its complications, as well as others, such as cataracts and secondary cancer caused by the chemotherapy. He added that if John is well in 18 to 24 months, he should consider himself as close to being "cured" as they use the term.
We were able to find John a new version of the Play Station 2 today, so he is sitting carefully on his bandages and playing games now. The Internet is up and Comcast is working simultaneously, so this is a good time to post recent news. Debbie and I are leaving shortly to handle dinner.
There is usually too much that needs doing to stop and realize how tired you are, but once in the morning and again at night, "reality" surfaces again. I got a mental boost yesterday from an article published concerning an informal survey of attention to privacy in businesses with an online presence. Cox was rated in the top 20. We probably would have been in the top 10, except for the fact that we lacked any seal of approval on our website from an independent rating group. The irony is that our standards were so high that the rating group couldn't figure out how to fit us within its qualifications.
Off now to deal with dinner.
