Excellent news, everybody! We have a very happy update to share with you. 

Anthony is on track with his recovery and his new cells are doing just fine! Everything is going well and progress is evident in all of the diagnostics. This initial phase of the bone marrow transplant has been a success. 

The results from his chimerism test on Monday, March 18th came back with good results. A chimerism test is a genetic blood test that is performed after a patient receives a stem cell transplant. The test essentially determines how well the patient is accepting the transplant by analyzing the genetic viability of the donor’s and the patient’s genetic material. Anthony’s test results showed 100% donor which is exactly what we had hoped for. It shows that the new cells have durably engrafted. The next big testing milestone will be another bone marrow biopsy in a few weeks. This will allow his doctors to do a full disease evaluation of his leukemia status and assess further treatment. This will likely happen the first week of May. 

For the last few weeks Anthony has been going to clinic on Mondays and Thursdays for evaluation and testing (and sometimes a transfusion) — oncologist on Monday, nurse practitioner on Thursday. He has steadily been increasing his counts in platelets and hemoglobin indicating that he is manufacturing his own blood. He has not needed a transfusion in the past couple of weeks. For those keeping score, his white blood count is 8.1 and continues to be in the normal range.  Platelets are at 86 (still low, but increasing) and hemoglobin has gone up a whole point since Monday, April 1st. 

All of this is making Anthony’s care team more confident that they can lessen the frequency of monitoring and testing. Beginning next week he will only be going to the clinic once a week. Huzzah!

The other major step that happened this week is the removal of Anthony’s PICC line. He has had it in ever since his admission to the hospital in February. Freedom! All in all, Anthony is having a very good week! 

On the home front things are going well, too. This has been their first full week on their own without live-in help. Sam returned to Portland on Saturday, March 30th. However, they’ve been busy. Anthony has been getting his backyard oasis in order with the help of his trusty crew — Allen and Danny. The pool has been opened for the season and Dee Dee even got the planting beds turned and ready for tomatoes. While Anthony can’t dig in the dirt himself, he’s managed to get the garden going with the help of the people who love him…and there are a lot of us!

If anything changes, anything at all, we will definitely get an update out immediately. However, at this point I’m thinking we can almost all breathe a sigh of relief and even allow ourselves a little hope for Anthony’s hiking trip. 

Thank you (as ever) for your constant support and positive energy. Anthony, Dee Dee, and the whole family remain grateful and inspired by the outpouring of affection and care from their community.  You’ve been with us and have sustained us on this long journey. We are eternally grateful. Still a way to go, but we are feeling close. Anthony is getting stronger everyday. 

Be well, all. Take care. 

(I will definitely provide an update after the bone marrow biopsy in May with results and status)