Pretty Exciting Stuff Today!

Today was a long day at LDS Hospital.  After the usual round of drawing blood and talking to the physician's assistant, we met with two of the Bone Marrow Transplant clinic's doctors.  They gave us a thorough walk through of the results from the procedures Eric has had in the past week: extra blood work, bone marrow biopsy, chest x-ray, and pulmonary function test.  Everything is looking good and we are feeling very positive, so I will share several of the highlights from today.

Eric has not shown any indications of graft versus host disease (rejection of the stem cell transplant) so they are going to start tapering his anti-rejection medication.  This is very exciting because it means fewer pills for Eric to swallow, he will have fewer tremors and less swelling in his extremities, and his immune system will start to build up.  If all goes well the taper will take nine months, so we really hope all goes well!

Eric has been tolerating his oral magnesium well, so today his central line was removed!  It was inserted on August 19, so Eric has had to put up with it on the right side of his chest for quite awhile.  When the site has healed, Eric will be able to shower without applying a protective covering over the area and he will also be able to take a bath.  This should also make it easier for him to sleep.  It takes about a week to heal, so Eric is really looking forward to taking a bath on Christmas day--a great present!

And last but not least, we found out how far along in the engraftment process the stem cell transplant is.  The bone marrow biopsy suggested that 96% of the bone marrow is now being produced by Eric's sister Debbie's stem cells.  There is still a lot of fibrosis in the bone marrow, but it is gradually being reduced as the healthy donor stem cells stimulate new bone marrow and new blood cell production.  In contrast, Eric's blood work analysis determined that only 67% of his blood originates from Debbie's stem cell transplant.  But upon further testing in the lab, the blood sample came back XX, so it is obviously Debbie's.

We feel very blessed that things have gone so well for us and that we received such great news today!  Thank you for your love, support, and prayers.