A clarification

In light of the relatively good news we had yesterday, which I’ve summarized here, there is a bit of clarification as well.

The real danger, early on, had been that Beth’s leukemia would progress into something more aggressive. But the bone marrow biopsy last week has basically shown that the disease has been controlled and beaten back to some degree.

That’s the good news. The caveat is that all of this is just temporary. We are in a kind of holding pattern. The disease is controlled, it’s not progressing, and Beth’s health is improving, but it is only doing so pending the arrival of a huge milestone, called “the transplant”.

Her bone marrow is still diseased on a genetic level. The Vidaza can’t (doesn’t) work forever; either the body adapts to it, or it stops working at a point. So at some point, her genetically-damaged marrow will continue to put out genetically damaged “blasts”, and in very short order these would again begin to overwhelm her system and possibly put her into aggressive leukemia. That’s just the way this one works.

So we’re waiting to hear from the transplant folks on the status of an acceptable donor, so we can move into the next (“curative”) phase of this. Only the transplant can get rid of her diseased marrow and put her on a path for a normal life.

Our doctor says that we will move ahead with the transplant just as soon as an acceptable donors is selected. I called the transplant coordinator at the hospital yesterday, and of the initial group of “10/10” matches, they are following up with four of them (one international!) to have more testing done. We should know something in a couple of weeks.