The Booster Shot

Tyler's DLI was not exactly what we expected.  Scott's lymphocyte collection took about 2 hours, after which he was able to go home and rest.  I picked Tyler up at his dad's house and we headed down to SCCA.  We got there a little bit early, but weren't able to get in for treatment until about 4:15pm.

The doctors came to see Tyler while we were waiting for the lymphocytes to be shipped over from the next building.  Dr. Flowers was practically bouncing with excitement, as she explained to us that Tyler would be the VERY FIRST person to receive a donor lymphocyte infusion from a HAAPLO donor.  She said that HAAPLO-Identical transplants usually have more GVHD and may develop other complications, but don't usually have to get a DLI.  Somehow, Tyler and his dad were just "getting along" a little bit too well.  I've decided to instigate some fights between the two of them, in hopes that Scott's marrow with start fighting with Tyler's leukemia a little bit more.

The actual infusion was really quick because they only gave Tyler 10cc's of lymphocytes.  They froze the rest of the collection from Scott, in case they need to give Tyler a future booster.  The doctor had indicated to use that she could give Tyler 10^6 or 10^7 lymphocytes, but they wanted to use the higher dose so that they could really attack this disease.

Now that we are done with the actual infusion, we wait.  They will monitor Tyler with monthly blood tests, but say that we should not expect changes for the first few months.  He is off his Tasigna (the leukemia medicine he's been on for the majority of the last 18 months), but they have started him on a 6 week course of Interferon.  Tyler has to give himself a shot every night (fun if you love needles, right?!) of Interferon.  This is the drug that they used before Gleevec came on the market, and it is supposed to make him feel like he has the flu for the next few weeks.  So far, so good... But it was only shot #2 tonight.

Thanks for all of the prayers and the encouragement!

Mandy