Day +84: Biopsy scheduled Today Dec. 9, 2014

On Sunday afternoon, December 7, 2014  Todd received a message from his online "My Chart" that the BMT Team finally scheduled his bone marrow biopsy for Tuesday, December 9. That meant we were going to have to be at the Cleveland four days this week!  This was too much since we have been trying to drive home in between appointments on Mondays and Fridays. This week, however they had scheduled his doctor's appointment on a Wednesday instead of a Monday with 3 treatment appointments Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I think the schedule was changed due to his doctor's schedule. He hasn't needed a Wednesday appointment since the first week he was out of the hospital. 

Todd decided he wasn't going to go up for his Monday treatment appointment, so I called the doctor's office to rearrange this week's schedule. We decided to drive up on Tuesday for the biopsy and spend the night so we could be there early for his Wednesday treatment and doctor's appointment. 

We won't get the results of the bone marrow biopsy for about 4-7 days and then the cytogenetics will take a few more days longer. They are looking for a few specific things. 

First, that there is bone marrow from the engraftment. If there is no significant amount of engrafted marrow this would likely indicate a failure in the BMT. 

Second, they will look at the chimerism of the cells present: how many are from his own original bone marrow and how many are from his brother's donated marrow that has engrafted. 

Third, they will look to see if there is any disease present (MDS). They can determine this by looking for blast cells and/or the type of blast cells, and how many there are. 

It looks like they are going to do a CBC today and/or tomorrow to check his counts. 

We are expecting good news. We have been praying that God would bless us, and Todd's body specifically. We are praising God in advance for his wondrous mercy. Please continue to pray on his behalf.