Weekend Update January 22, 2016

A chilly weekend here.  Emma and I went to an open house for one of the high schools to which she is applying.  Jim took my Mom up to Bowdoin to watch Joseph in a track meet.  From the texts Jim is sending it sounds like Joe is having a very good day.  During the meet, the announcer gave a shout out to "Joe Staudt's Grandmother who is visiting from Cleveland"  Pretty cute

Medical Update:  Ambiguity reins with my condition.  The continuing good news is the leukemia has not shown explosive growth.  Instead it remains in my blood stream at a relatively low level having shown signs of responding to both the chemo which finished Friday January 16 and my immune system.  What we are looking for at this point, however, s the leukemia going completely quite with no presence in my blood stream.  It is frustrating we are not seeing that and has us looking at more aggressive therapy in the near future.

I will likely start a clinical trial in about 3 weeks with medications for immune amplification.  I have taken these types of medications before but not the two drugs in the trial.  This would possibly be followed by another donor cell infusion.  Another option is a more aggressive, toxic chemo (the one that makes me lose my beautiful new and quite soft hair).  We would go this route if the leukemia persists and/or grows in my blood stream.

So not great news this past week.  However we continue to fight the good fight and pray my leukemia stays controlled enough for me to start the clinical trial in a few weeks.  (In order to enter the trial participants need to be 3 weeks out from their last treatment.)

Thanks for checking in and will probably update again next week unless something comes up before then.

Love
Maureen