A Good Week, but now some concerns...

We had a very good honeymoon and will fill you in more on that front in a later message, but for now I thought it more important to get the news out about Tyler's health. On Monday, December 17th, we had an appointment with Dr. M to get the results of the Bone Marrow extraction from the 12/4 and the Gleevec level test that Novartis (the manufacturer) was offering from Dec 7th.

After being off Gleevec for a full week, we were hoping that Tyler's platelet count had climbed back up into a more comfortable range. Unfortunately, Monday's test showed that he had actually dropped to 21 for his platelets and his White Blood Cell count had climbed to 52000. This is a bad sign and, an in combination with the Gleevec Level in his blood, indicates that his disease is no longer responding to his chemotherapy drug.

The doctor also discovered that Tyler had a temperature of 101-102 and an ear infection and recommended that he check into the hospital that night to get both of those things under control with intravenous antibiotics.

He is switching Tyler's medicine to Sprycel (the next generation of drug after Gleevec) as soon as the hospital pharmacy can get some and we'll hope for a positive response to that. They do say that Tyler will most likely need a transplant now to fight his disease. We hope to learn more over the next few days.

He doesn't feel really sick, so he is resting fairly comfortably in a private room. I think his biggest challenge will be boredom, so I'm taking a stack of movies to him tonight. Frequent score updates will be helpful for any NFL games being played this week (although I'm hoping he will be out in time to watch them).

Thank you for the prayers being said on his behalf and for the calls and e-mails sharing love and support. He is currently at Steven's Hospital, in Edmonds, in Room 802 if you want to call or come by. Visiting hours are 2pm - 7pm and we expect to be at the hospital for a few days this week, if you decide you want to visit.

Thanks!

Mandy