Diane Jensen: Biopsy results

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Biopsy results

Tuesday we came back to the hospital had a blood test and then she got two units of platelets and two units of blood. Made for another long day but she wasn't feeling too bad and the biopsy hasn't bothered her too much.

We got two days off and then back to the hospital for 3 more units of platelets and the Pow Wow with the bone marrow transplant team doctors and our coordinator.

The biopsy report had come back. We sat down with Dr Gabbey and our coordinator Rachael, and they gave us the results of the biopsy. The results: bone marrow contained 15 to 19% blasts. That's not the news that we wanted to hear. That puts her 1% away from leukemia.

Our options were few at this point since all other IV chemo had stopped working, one option was to do nothing, the second option was to take the oral chemo Revlimid at two and a half times the dose that she had been taking and do it for 28 days straight. If that showed some promise then they would start another 28 day regimen of 5 times the normal dose and see if that was able to accomplish anything.

Since Revlimid is a fairly new drug it does not have a long track record and there were no statistics available for that kind of treatment. It was just more of a study treatment than anything, there had been some papers where some patients had received some benefit from it in the higher dose range. We're not sure how she will feel on a higher dose and that may be some of the determining factor as to whether we continue along that road or not.

Still it is going one day at a time......

2 comments:

DebbiSeptember 21, 2015 at 8:33 AM
Love you, Diane. My heart aches for you. I'll keep praying.
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wendy smedleySeptember 22, 2015 at 8:41 PM
Love and prayers to you and your family wendy
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Diane is very thankful for any well wishes, even if she is not able to respond to all of them.

Diane's MDS Diagnosis

The hospital encourages visits when she is home or inpatient. Call first to insure she feels well enough at any particular time for visiting. Her immune system is severely compromised, so we ask you not to visit with young children or if you are ill. Currently she is an outpatient.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) is a bone marrow disease much like cancer. If left untreated, it will eventually lead to the failure of the bone marrow (requiring transfusions) or Leukemia.

The only way to prevent this is undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Presently, her blast counts are increasing faster than expected but have not reached the level of Leukemia. Her blood counts are lower now and she has had a transfusion to help with this. She is to proceed with the bone marrow transplant now because of how rapidly the MDS is progressing.

Diane will enter the LDS Hospital's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit on Wednesday, December 17^th. She will undergo alternating rounds of chemotherapy for about 2 weeks. The chemotherapy will kill the blood producing cells, as well as her immune system.

Once the blast counts are reduced enough, then Diane will receive a stem cell (bone marrow) transplant. Diane’s sister, Tracey, is a half match and is to be the stem cell donor. However, effort is still underway to get a full match in time for the transfusion. The purpose of the transplant is to have the healthy stem cells replace the unhealthy ones killed by the chemotherapy (in the bone marrow). Once the transplant is done she will be on medicine to prevent rejection for some time (estimated 6 months to a year).

Mid term bone marrow biopsy coming up on (day 17) Friday, Jan. 2 nd. Find out if more chemo might be needed after the results of that test come back. Then another biopsy about day 35. Transplant could take place around day 42 the doctor said.

At this time (June 30) no transplant is scheduled. The disease became active again about mid June. Her blast numbers increased rapidly within just a weekend. Had they been able to do transplant (June 8) it would NOT have been successful, and she would have gone thru much trama for nothing. She has started another round of chemo aimed at controlling the MDS to lower blast levels.

Both the chemotherapy and the stem cell transfusion will be very hard on Diane. We ask for your prayers of strength and comfort on her behalf.

This site will be updated with Diane’s progress.