So today we received the results from Tom's bone marrow biopsy that was done last week. As many remember, this was going to be the deciding factor as to whether or not we go forward with chemo or if we go to a bone marrow transplant.
It pains me to inform everyone that while the odds were in our favor (as we were told), they unfortunately did not pan out that way and Tom will be having to do a bone marrow transplant.
To explain: After the "induction" phase of chemo (the first two rounds), he was expected to already be in full remission, but a bone marrow aspiration showed 10-15% residual leukemia cells in the marrow (when they obviously expected it to be 0). Granted this was down from his initial 90%, which is what led the oncologist to hope that another two rounds of chemo would knock that last bit out and put him into remission. IF it came back with maybe 1%, he said we would go ahead with round five and check again... however it has come back with a 5-10%. This means the chemo has not been successful in reaching remission and to keep going could actually cause damage to the marrow.
Going forward, we have a consult with the doctor our oncologist recommended for a transplant at Sutter General on Wednesday. We are still up in the air as to whether we will choose to go for a second opinion at UCSF, mostly because of the treatment and transportation. Not to bother everyone with that information, but there ya go. Monday we have scheduled to do the very intense five day chemo plan for pre-transplant and hopefully find a marrow match in the next couple of weeks.
We will keep everyone posted.
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