Well, so much has happened, and yet, essentially nothing has changed. I had a bone marrow biopsy approximately 2 weeks following the chemo week. The results showed that nothing had changed. My stats are the same in regard to the % of leukemia cells in the marrow. (They are looking for less than 5% as a success toward remission, and I'm in the 40's- not even close). The following 2 weeks were recovery and transfusions when needed. Of course the decision of what to do next was discussed, and a clinical trial was mentioned. The clinical trial did look attractive, as it is done outpatient, and after a full month here, I am so sick of being away from my home. However, the goal of the trial was to determine a maximum amount a patient could take of a certain drug. Plus I couldn't get any info on the people who have gone before me, as to the success rate of going into remission. XX It just was too iffy, however it would still be available to me if this next treatment doesn't work either.
I am now doing a week of stronger chemo this week, and not so thrilled. Waiting for all those evil side effects to occur as well.... Still in the hospital- earliest date of release is now Apr 16th, which I doubt will actually happen. My brother was tested as a bone marrow donor, and there is a 25% chance of a sibling being a full match. Obviously now they are going for a transplant, so like I said, Apr 16th is probably a joke.
Yet still, they have to clear the bone marrow to get the transplant to work, so please think happy thoughts for me that this round of chemo will reduce that # immensely! Thanks =)
