I would like to say fast forward to today’s results but it was anything but fast forward. We chose to not say anything to anyone because it was not worth anyone else suffering undue stress when there was nothing we could all do but wait. We went through the motions of the night and I cried in the shower for a very long time. I prepared my speeches how I would tell everyone the news.
G-d is good. Results came fairly early this morning (which I am also thankful for) and they were as good as we could expect. The 10% of cells that are Daniel’s truly are cancer free and are not showing evidence of his genetic mutation at all. Thank G-d, Thank G-d, Thank G-d. pfu pfu pfu. Now the quandary comes about what we do about why his cells have come back. And will they continue to do so or stay the same. If they do stay the same that will be fine possibly. Dr. Craddock says if he is losing his graft it is unusual that it would be so late in the game. It would have been by Day 100 we would have seen this happen. This is very unusual (which is not unusual for Daniel). This is why the Dr. will consult with other specialist nationwide about a plan forward, but as it stands instead of what we though of not needing a bone marrow biopsy more than once a year to check him he will need to have one now every month to check that this 10% is not changing at all. Dr. Craddock says some Doctors say recipients can live with a mix of donor and recipient cell in a far closer balance but he is not comfortable with that considering how aggressive Daniel’s cancer was and how difficult it was to get rid of. There was so much more and so much more we don’t need to address and we can just breathe a sigh of relief for the fact that tomorrow we get to go ahead with plans as usual and chalk this up to an enormous scare.
I will look at it as a way that we will get to keep a closer eye on Daniel for the next little while as we will be checking, checking, checking him frequently and thouroghly instead of waiting until next year. I guess I will consider that a silver lining. It is REALLY faint and deeply hidden but I will take it I guess. Tonight I will sleep knowing we are moving forward tomorrow with surgery and then WE WILL celebrate our one year birthday on Thursday.