Bone Marrow

So one thing we haven't posted an update about is Clara's bone marrow and whether or not we are headed to transplant yet.

Last Tuesday, Clara had a bone marrow aspirate and biopsy.  It took until yesterday for them to tell us that the marrow sample from last week's procedure wasn't sufficient to determine her MRD (minimal residual disease).  As such, they tentatively rescheduled her for another aspirate and biopsy for tomorrow (Wednesday) assuming her white blood cell counts had recovered enough that they would expect enough bone marrow to be able to get a good sample.

This morning, they let us know that while Clara's counts HAVE NOT recovered, Dr. Dahl (the head AML dude at Packard) wants to take a look anyway.  While we hate to have her undergo another procedure (general anesthesia is always a dangerous things, plus last week they had to attempt a biopsy in two places on one hip and three on the other...she was so bruised and is still healing), we also want to know as soooooon as possible, if there are leukemic cells in her marrow.

Alan and I were finally tested today to see if we can undergo a Natural Killer Cells (NKC) procedure at St. Jude Children's Hospital.  IF Clara is not in remission after this last round of chemo, NKC is another treatment that they are trying instead of chemo once we are at this stage of treatment.  I don't completely understand the process, so you would have to bug Alan for a blog post on that one.  But, basically, if Alan or I are a MISmatch in our HLA typing, our cells could be a treatment plan for her instead of chemo and before bone marrow transplant. 

The goal is for her to be in complete remission (or as close to it as possible) before we go to bone marrow transplant. 

We did hear from the stem cell transplant team that they have (3?) specimens from potential donors that have arrived at Stanford.  We will have to wait 3-4 days to find out if they are a perfect 10 of 10 match like we anticipate.  Nothing but perfect for our Clara Bug!

So!  Keep the thoughts and prayers coming!  Clara's procedure is at 7:30am PST.  We had a PERFECT night's sleep last night and I am anticipating the same tonight.  A concoction of benadryl and dilaudid are ensuring that. 

Thanks to all for your continued support.