Feelin' Good...

Went to see the dr. yesterday. Good news! My white blood count is down to 24,000. Previously before this at my last appt it had been 37,000, so this was great news. I have also been feeling really good lately which has been a huge blessing. So my dr. said that it is pretty clear that the Gleevec medicene is helping which is great. However, he did discuss with me the possibility of doing a transplant sometime next year, perhaps in the summer. We will keep watching my counts, and I will keep going back to him monthly right now to monitor everything and make sure it doesn't get worse. But he said that because I'm young/healthy, he thinks it's wise for me to get the transplant soon, because #1, it would cure me, and #2, if I didn't get it, and just took Gleevec or another med for the rest of my life, (which would be imperative), there is a risk that it could develop into Acute Leukimia or something more serious than right now. Obviously there are risk factors doing the transplant, but he thinks because of my age it's better to go ahead with it. So, nothing is really set in stone at this point, but it looks like I might be doing the transplant next summer. What would this entail? Well, I would have to carve out about 3 months of my schedule to do it. I'd have to get chemotherapy for 6-8 days, then be in the hospital for almost 3 weeks, receive the new bone marrow, and then for about 2 months come back and forth to the hospital for checkups and monitoring. The highest risk factor of the transplant if after they wipe out the white blood cells, because I wouldn't have anything to fight off any type of infection with.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. Your prayers are felt every day. I hope to see all of you at some point over the holiday season and thank you in person!

By His Grace Alone,
Luke