A medical update

Beth’s “engraftment” of her new bone marrow is extremely strong -- they gave her the maximum “dose” of new stem cells (she had a good young donor), and her blood levels, as best as I can tell, are all at or near the normal range. (She is still making daily outpatient trips to the hospital, and she gets IV fluids and antibiotics every day. I don’t get to the hospital as much any more, and so I don’t get to bother them about getting me the lab charts as much as I like).

This week, she is going to have a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday (1/17), which will provide genetic material for a DNA test called a “Chimerism” test -- that will verify that none of her old marrow is growing, and that it’s 100% of the new stuff. Of course, if her old marrow were to still continue to be growing, that could indicate the possibility of a relapse. (But not necessarily. The intention of the “conditioning” phase was to destroy the old marrow. The chemo and radiation does not eliminate it, but prevents it from growing. The “immune system” from the new material should, over time, remove all of the old marrow in the same way that your immune system would remove any infection: white cells surround it, kill the infection and carry it away.)

The down side of all this is that the new material is also rejecting her tissue. This is called “graft vs host” disease, or GVH. So far, it’s affecting her skin, in the form of a very nasty itchy and painful rash. See this photo. So she’s very uncomfortable right now, but the doctors are confident that she’s progressing as intended.

During the latter part of last year, I followed the story of R.C. Sproul Jr’s wife, Denise. She was diagnosed with AML leukemia in February. She had a bone marrow transplant in the spring. By late summer she had mentioned on her Facebook page that she had relapsed. By December, she had passed away. Beth’s form of leukemia (CMML) is one of the “pre-leukemias” within the AML family. That is, this particular family of leukemias are all related to AML chemically and genetically. AML is the more severe, advanced, and aggressive version of what essentially is a very similar disease. Beth had not advanced into AML when she was diagnosed, and the Vidaza treatments she was receiving was able to prevent that from happening in the months prior to her transplant.

And so, once we get through these nasty outbreaks, there’s a very good chance that the transplant will have worked, and life will get back to “normal”. Again, I’d like to thank all of you who supported us this past year, financially, with your prayers and concern, and your friendship. We are not out of the woods yet, but Lord willing, things are progressing the way we had hoped they would.