The Update

They have decided that the blood results they got last night and this morning are a clear enough that we need to treat this as a relapse of the leukemia. Ryan will begin chemotherapy tomorrow morning. He will be getting a drug that they've pronounced several times today, but I still don't know what it is. It is a drug that is normally used in children, as many of the drugs they have to treat ALL since it is a childhood disease. They were going to do a bone marrow biopsy, but decided to spare Ryan the pain of the procedure because the bloodwork showed them enough that the marrow would only show them what they already know. That doesn't rule out that there's some sort of infection as well; Ryan's temperature has bounced around today from normal to 102 degrees.

Ryan seems to feel a little better today, although he is still very tired. The doctor said that with a relapse within 3-4 months after transplant that the prognosis isn't good, but Ryan is a determined person, so he has told the doctor that he's going to beat this. I'm pretty determined most of the time, but in these situations, I'm the worrier. I ask for your prayers because I often worry about losing Ryan and how that would affect our precious Aubrey. I worry about Ryan not being able to go back to work and what that means for us financially. I worry about leaving Aubrey to be with Ryan; I worry about leaving Ryan to be with Aubrey. God has proven himself two times already - he has covered all our needs since this whole ordeal began and in my heart I know that he is still holding us and will show his miracles to us each step of the way. I just have to get past the other things clouding my thoughts.

Ryan's uric acid was high when we came in last night. It is supposed to be between 4.7 and 7.7 - it was 12 last night and 8 at noon today. The nurse drew blood about an hour ago to check it again and they expect it to be back down to normal level - that would be positive news. When a person's white count gets high and the cells begin to break up or die, they release uric acid. When there's too many white blood cells, there's too much uric acid and that can harm the kidneys. Ryan's kidney function levels are also high, which means that his kidneys are working exactly as they're supposed to, but they expect that those levels will drop with more fluids and as Ryan feels better and begins drinking and urinating more regularly.

The other issue that the doctor is concerned most about is Ryan's fatigue. He is still very tired, although he says he feels better today than he has. Dr. Devine said that after a day or so of the chemo that if he isn't feeling better that they would do a spinal tap to check for leukemia in the spinal fluid.

I hope what I have written makes sense. I tried to sleep at the hospital last night in the recliner - it wasn't comfortable and they apparently don't want their patients to sleep because I think they were in the room every hour.

-A