Sam’s oncologist called this morning at 8:45 am and while I picked up with some trepidation, it was good news:

His measure of residual disease number came back as ZERO!!!!

This is the result from flow cytometry, so the test that measures out of 10,000 cells to see if there are any leukemic ones.

Dr. S said that she asked the pathologist to look carefully through the result to make sure there were no signs of markers that might indicate some change for the worse too and there were none!

HOORAY!

And for the December 1 test, the last time he got a bone marrow draw, there were some leukemia cells that they could see by flow cytometry so the blina is working!  And Sam’s body is working to kick this fucker to the curb!

Go Sam Go! Go Blina Go!

We’ll get the Next Generation Sequencing results back in a few days. That test is out of 1,000,000 so more specific. We’re hoping that is 0 too.

And he starts his 2nd round of blina on Thursday so will be admitted for 2 days of observation to make sure everything is kopacetic.

And tomorrow we will talk with a friend of another oncologist friend who is the head of pediatric stem cell transplants at another world class cancer center in the US (not because we think we are getting subpar care — we just want to make sure we understand how other institutions approach similar patients’ cases).  

Thank you to that friend for connecting us — you know who you are!

We know we are privileged and we do not take all these resources lightly. We will continue to work for the day that all kids (and people) who have cancer, and the families who love them, have the opportunity to have the best care possible, no matter their origin story or their heritage language or their skin color or socioeconomic status, and the most current information and research at their fingertips so they can make the best decisions possible in the midst of the hurricane that is getting a pediatric cancer diagnosis.

#FULeukemia

#TeamCH❤️

#TeamSam❤️