Finished with Chemo - Update

It's been a while and we thought we should post some news on how Janna is doing.  The good news of recent (really, some of the best news we could have received), was that Janna's cancer is now in remission.  The induction chemo she went through in March was a success.  But, we still have a long road ahead.  It is an enormous blessing that the cancer is now in remission, and it's another great blessing that she only had to go through one more week of treatments (just finished up this afternoon) instead of 4 more weeks over the next 4 months, which is what we previously thought she had to go through.  As of this afternoon, she is done with chemo!  She still has a round of radiation therapy to go through in late May/early June, but from what we understand, this will be a piece of cake compared to the side effects of chemo (easy for me to say since I'm the one that doesn't have to go through it).

There are still a few things up in the air.  Bone marrow transplants are typical with most types of leukemia.  Before seeing the results of the induction chemo, the doctor was preparing us for the possibility of going through a transplant.  After seeing the results, he is leaning towards it not being needed, but he's consulting with his peers and mentor at Johns Hopkins to get their take.  It sounds like it's a split decision, with a few believing that Janna does not need a transplant, but others believing that she should have one.  Bone marrow transplants have many possible side effects, none of them easy to go through.  You are essentially destroying your immune system and transplanting someone else's immune system into your body.  It's a process that usually takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months in the hospital, then many more months (sometimes years) of pretty intense care before you can return to normal activities.  But, a transplant is often the only way someone with leukemia can survive, so the benefits often outweigh the risks.  In Janna's case, her doctor (Dr. El-Shami) believes that the risks outweigh the potential benefits, since he believes the results from her current treatments show enough proof that she can and will beat it without the need of a transplant.  Either way, nothing is certain, and it sounds like this is a decision that we will ultimately have to make in the coming months.

The next couple of weeks will be the same as the past couple of weeks - doctor appointments every few days to test her blood levels, with a high probability of needing transfusions to get her through the side effects of chemo. Typically, white blood cells, hemoglobin and platelets, along with a few other things in your blood that I know nothing about, go way down, leaving you susceptible to sickness and a lot of other issues.  Her blood levels should start to return to normal levels sometime toward the end of April, so she should be able to have a few "normal" weeks before she has to go back in for radiation therapy.  After that, we expect to have a thorough discussion on whether or not she needs to have a bone marrow transplant.

With or without a bone marrow transplant, Janna will have to go back to the oncologist once a month for the first year, then every couple of months until the end of the 3rd year.  She will have MRI's once a quarter for the first year, then a couple of times a year after that.  She will be considered "cured" of cancer after 3 years of not having any sign of leukemia.  So while the cancer is now considered to be in remission, she is not yet cured.  Dr. El-Shami told us a while ago that without the consolidation chemo (what she went through this week), there was a 100% chance of it coming back.  Hopefully now that she has gone through this treatment, we can bring that down to 0%.

I'll end by sincerely thanking everyone who has kept us in their thoughts and prayers - we've been truly blessed because of them.  We have friends and family of many faiths who have offered many prayers in our behalf and done many acts of service for our family (from Mormon to Catholic to Muslim to Jewish to every Christian denomination under the sun to agnostic and atheist - it's all been a blessing - and if I left anyone out, please let me know and I'll give you a shout out in another post :)  ).  We thank God everyday for the friends we have and the family we've been blessed with.  Our ask of you is to keep the thoughts and prayers up - they're obviously working and we're nowhere near not needing them!