High Octane Fuel

Tyler is on daily blood checks this week to make sure his platelet and red blood cell counts stay at a good level and today's check indicated that he needed a little boost in platelets. So we headed across the parking lot to get his fueling. He says it is funny that he doesn't feel any different with his platelets at 14 (today's count) or his platelets at 40 (Monday's count). His red blood cell count has been holding steady, so we are thankful for that.

After a little hiccup in getting the platelet request to the blood bank, they found a match and got the unit of platelets to us as soon as they could. Tyler was hooked up to an IV for about an hour to get the drip and then we headed out. Unfortunately, it was a day of delays. We left home at 8:30am this morning and I dropped him off about 2:30pm after all of that. Where does the time go??

Overall, he is doing well, so we are very thankful for that. We did learn a lot more about stuff going forward and some of it was hard for us to hear. If Tyler opts for a transplant, he will likely be on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his life. I don't really know that means in terms of work, soccer, other parts of life so we need to look into that. It also looks like Tyler will probably need to get platelet transfusions about every 3 days for a little bit.

They should have a better idea of how well he is responding the Sprycel after a few weeks, which will determine what happens next with his treatment. Dr M2 (filling in for our regular oncologist over the holidays) says that they will not be able to do the transplant while Tyler is in a blast crisis. It is critical that we get his disease back under control.

Here's hoping the Sprycel does what we want it to do!

Mandy