We had a doctor’s appointment yesterday; really the only thing we learned was that she was generally responding well to the Vidaza treatment, and that the “transplant” was probably going to follow along less quickly than we thought. I had been reading some of the literature which said that for someone who presented with an IPSS high risk level (as Beth had done), the intention is to move them to the transplant as quickly as possible. Dr. Rossetti clarified that for me: “in transplant years, ‘as quickly as possible’ means 8 to 12 weeks.”
The really good news is that Beth’s blood levels are starting to moderate (see the chart below). Her platelets came back to normal; her white counts are fluctuating a bit, but her hemoglobin levels are generally stabilizing. (In the chart below, he most recent blood counts I have are about two weeks old).
What that amounts to is that we are really in a kind of holding pattern, holding on for the next couple of months till the transplant can be scheduled. That’s really the only event that matters with this particular disease – the chance to “wipe the slate clean,” or “reformat the [bone marrow] hard drive”.
So with Beth not working now, what this means is that she’ll have an extra month or two of “real life” at home with the kids, without the pressures of a full-time job. There’s another month’s worth of summer vacation with the girls, and she’ll be able to help get them on the bus into the start of the next school year.
These are all good things; where the difficulty is going to occur, is that we’ve needed her second income to pay the bills. We’ve always known that was coming. Her last (partial) paycheck reached the bank this morning.
