Bone Marrow, FISH and PCR?

On Aug. 12, we went to the Cancer Center for blood work. Mom's white blood cells were still down .1 but the red blood cells and platelets were both up. That darn chemo is still stirring around in there! On Monday the 15th Mom will start the chemo pills again twice a day for 15 days. In 15 days we go back to the Cancer Center and Dr. Jeong will tell us what the next steps are. This is the start of the maintenance chemo. It will involve the pills only - no liquid - and last 2 years. 

The good news Dr. Jeong shared was that the FISH test came back ok. With this type of leukemia (APL), the bone marrow, FISH test and PCR test is what they watch. So far the bone marrow and FISH tests have been good. Today they sent away the first PCR test. Her blood is still recovering and Dr. Jeong will evaluate it again in 1 month (the middle of September) and decide when Mom should start resuming normal activity.

They will keep doing the bone marrow samples every 3 months and she will keep taking the cumidin until October. That darn blood clot will take about 3 months to completely go away. Stay tuned for the maintenance chemo plan coming soon!