Holding steady

Tyler's numbers from the 4/30 blood count were actually quite surprising to both of us. We learned that, while his numbers are low, they are consistently low and didn't appear to be dropping too strongly. He is definitely anemic and has a slightly low platelet count, but the doctor decided not to change his dosage as we expected.

Every time Tyler has had BCR-Abl test results since his relapse in December, the markers they look for have been creeping down. This is one of the biggest benchmarks of whether or not the treatment is working, so that's great news. While we wish they would drop faster, any improvement is good.

On another interesting note, Dr M told us (for the first time in my recollection) that Tyler has the P210 mutation of leukemia and that Sprycel was showing to be the best drug against that mutation of those that area available. He said that the mutation had been there from the start, but other types of leukemia cells had overrun his body and made this one harder to find.

Next week, they'll take an extra vial of blood to get another BCR-Abl test. We don't know the results until we meet with Dr. M again on 5/28, but we will hope to see positive blood results each week in the meantime.