Genie's Cells Take Over

On the day this photo was taken, we were walking along the Milford Bike Trail and stopped along side the Milford Dam which was once used to generate electricity for a portion of our small town.

We've made it to Post Transplant Day #67.

We got good news at our clinic visit last Friday. Genie's stem cells are now evident in 100% of Gil's peripheral stem cells. This is a more accurate test than the earlier peripheral estimates where it was shown that 100% of Gil's myeloid line and 77% of his lymphoid line were being produced by Genie's stem cells .

The test results we got on Friday were also from a peripheral blood sample but measure the percentage of cells containing either XX or XY chromosomes. All of Gil's stem cells now have the XX chromosome in their DNA which is evidence that they are Genie's "girly girl" cells. This is very good news.

There were no cancerous (leukemic) cells seen in the peripheral blood sample this time whereas they had been seen in small amounts in past samples. This does not mean that there are no leukemic cells remaining. It simply means they might not be in high enough concentrations in the peripheral blood to be picked up for measurement.

And we want to know if they're still there in any small but measurable amount at all.

So the next step is for our Karmanos team to look at the bone marrow itself. Gil is scheduled for another bone marrow biopsy on Friday this week to see if there are any leukemic cells in the bone marrow that simply hadn't had time to make their way out into the peripheral bloodstream yet.

He's feeling good. Lots of energy. A small bit of graft vs. host disease as evidenced by a mild skin rash on his thorax but it is being treated and as we've said before, it is a "good" rash because it means Genie's cells are recognizing Gil's few remaining cells as "foreign."

It's icy out today so we will head to the indoor "controlled climate" of the mall and walk with the "mall walkers" before the doors open to the public.

The main threat now to Gil's continued successful recovery is opportunistic infection and pneumocystis pneumonia is one of the big ones we need to avoid.

Marika flies in from California tonight and we can't wait!

Haiku:

Heading to the mall

Not to shop but to walk.

Retail stores need more buyers!