Unwelcome News

Yesterday, Nonnie got a blood marrow biopsy to check if the leukemia cells are still present. There were no "blasts" found as of last night. The "blast cells" are the ones that produce the abnormal cells, and those crowd out the production of healthy red and white blood cells and platelets.

The biopsy was then sent for further testing to see the effectiveness of the last chemotherapy treatment. Unfortunately, we did not receive the news that we were hoping and praying for. The leukemia is still present at this time.

Papa is going to UCLA in the morning, and she will be discharged home. The plan is to have her stay home for a week, receiving blood and platelets as needed in Riverside on an outpatient basis. The following week, she will get daily chemotherapy for five days. The treatment lasts one hour per day. They will check the effectiveness after about three weeks. This treatment will be less potent that the last chemotherapy. If there are signs of improvement, they will repeat the process a second time.

The goal seems to be to limit the spread of the leukemia cells with a less potent drug, allowing her to get strong enough to go back to UCLA for another induction round. At this point, her body is not strong enough to go through that so soon.