Loving Taylor

It is with a very sad heart that I post our "mixed results" as the oncologist put it today. Taylor went in for her lumbar puncture and bone marrow aspiration today. The good part of the mixed news is that her lumbar puncture came back clean (no leukemia)....yeah!! The not so good part of the mixed news is that her bone marrow aspiration results have come back that she has relapsed....horrible news!! It is very hard to explain and I don't even understand the news 100% but will try my best to explain it. Leukemia patients have cells in their bone marrow that are called "blasts". These are immature blood cells that either turn into normal mature cells or leukemia cells. Obviously when this all started, Taylor's "blasts" had turned into leukemia cells. After Round 1 of chemotherapy she had <3>8%....not good!!! But.....there is a 50/50 chance that the bone marrow has not had enough time to heal after 2 rounds of chemotherapy and that is why they are seeing an increase of leukemia cells. The doctor explained that this does happen. So....as of today, she has technically relapsed.

The new plan is to keep Taylor at home (that is the only good news out of all of this!!) until next Monday and re-test her bone marrow. So, she will have to have another bone marrow aspiration. The hope is that the blasts have matured into normal cells instead of leukemia cells and that she will have <5% leukemia cells. If she does have <5% on the next bone marrow aspiration, she will be considered back in remission. I asked the doctor what she thought would happen and she said that it could go either way. What we need now is more prayers than ever before!! I didn't think I could be more scared than when she was first diagnosed, but trust me, I am!!!

Taylor had a really hard time with the lumbar puncture and bone marrow aspiration today. She is in a lot of pain and I have had to give her oxycodone every 4 hours since we have gotten home. They did the bone marrow and lumbar puncture really close together on her back and she is very sore from it....poor baby!!! She is asleep already and I pray she sleeps all night....she really needs to recover.

So...until next Monday we are really just waiting AND PRAYING!!! This really wasn't the news that I had expected.....things seemed to be going so well. The question you are all probably asking is what happens if she isn't in remission next Monday.....the answer is, I don't' know. The doctor said that we would talk about that next Monday. If she is in remission (please, please, please!), then she will be admitted for Round 3.

I really don't know what else to say...not a very good day. I am very tired so think I will try to go to bed....long day.

Please pray for Taylor.

Love,
Kristen