Its back - but never really went away :(
Its been a while since my last update and in that time Daniel had another round of Chemo. Suprisingly he was GREAT! right the way through and beyond he seemed to cope with it and take it all in his stride.....i was so worried about how his body would handle a 4th round and yet he managed wonderfully....we have been in and out alot, due to high temps and infections, our last stint (2 weeks) ended on Friday and we are home for the weekend.
Now, i say home for now because Dr Caswell talked to Michael on Friday and gave us the news we had been dredding - that despite 4 rounds of intensive Chemo Daniels Cancer has returned and is again at 60-70% in his body taking over most of his healthy cells. To say we are shocked/devestated is an understatement - no real signs or symptoms that this had happened and the only real clue where the "unexplained fevers" he kept having that where put down to a mystery infection. The doctor explained - its not good for the cancer to still be there when chemo is still happening it means he has "resistant disease" the cells have mutated and started to fight the chemo, making nigh on impossible to cure with chemo alone.
7 months ago when this nightmare started we where told he would not be able to have a bone marrow transplant because of the risk to his liver. Now that statement has been blown out of the water and the drs have decided to go with another round of chemo and hopefully (if we reach that point) a bone marrow transplant. The main issue with all of this is his liver, as things stand today his liver function remarkably has returned to normal but this is serious chemo, stuff they have avoided purely because they "expect" it to cause liver problems with "healthy people". The truth is the doctor said there is only a slim chance Daniel will actually make it through the chemo, then they will see if its had any effect on the leukemic cells, if it has, they may need to do more or if its totally gone they will proceed to transplant.
We are numb.
Now, i say home for now because Dr Caswell talked to Michael on Friday and gave us the news we had been dredding - that despite 4 rounds of intensive Chemo Daniels Cancer has returned and is again at 60-70% in his body taking over most of his healthy cells. To say we are shocked/devestated is an understatement - no real signs or symptoms that this had happened and the only real clue where the "unexplained fevers" he kept having that where put down to a mystery infection. The doctor explained - its not good for the cancer to still be there when chemo is still happening it means he has "resistant disease" the cells have mutated and started to fight the chemo, making nigh on impossible to cure with chemo alone.
7 months ago when this nightmare started we where told he would not be able to have a bone marrow transplant because of the risk to his liver. Now that statement has been blown out of the water and the drs have decided to go with another round of chemo and hopefully (if we reach that point) a bone marrow transplant. The main issue with all of this is his liver, as things stand today his liver function remarkably has returned to normal but this is serious chemo, stuff they have avoided purely because they "expect" it to cause liver problems with "healthy people". The truth is the doctor said there is only a slim chance Daniel will actually make it through the chemo, then they will see if its had any effect on the leukemic cells, if it has, they may need to do more or if its totally gone they will proceed to transplant.
We are numb.
posted by Liz at 6:32 pm
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