More Good News Today

(Mirroring Post on Caring Bridge)

We got some good news from last week's blood test results today. I'd forgotten to check back with them earlier in the week regarding the portion of the blood test that takes several days to get results back, but I reminded Andrea to ask them today during the weekly chemo visit.  This is the much deeper analysis of his bone marrow aspiration that looks for cancerous cells.  You may recall that the hospital does a "quick look" within just a few minutes of the procedure and we got those results back right away pronouncing that he was in full "remission" last Friday.  They found ZERO cancerous cells in that quick look analysis even though they know there are still some cancer cells lurking around in there ... that's what this deeper test is for.

They told us the goal is to get the total cancer cell ("blast cell") count down to 0.01%.  I believe this is what they hope to achieve by the end of the first month of treatment.  The results from last Friday came back at 0.013% - within just a hair's breadth of the goal already.  Andrea said one of the other doctors dropped by just to let her know how unusual this good a result is this early in the treatment plan.  I wish I'd been there to fire off my usual plethora of questions to them, but this is the first visit I haven't attended (trying desperately to catch up on all the work I've missed!)  Regardless, the news couldn't be better nor fall on more receptive ears.  Although still dangerously low, his blood cell counts are beginning to climb again too - also a sign that the good (non cancerous) marrow is working again and on the path to recovery.

Whether due to the thousands of prayers going up, or the wonderful medical staff at Riley and the miracles of modern medicine, or the trip to see Solomon Wickey, or some other factor, we give all glory and praise to our loving and gracious God.  We also want to continue to express our deepest thanks to all who have labored on Daniel's behalf during this trial.  I can't imagine where we'd be without so much help and prayer from so many.  Thank you.

Daniel also picked up his new back brace today and I'll be heading home from work soon to get my first glimpse of it.  Please continue to pray for his complete recovery with the cancer, the osteoporosis, the chemotherapy side-effects, the stunted growth issues (which we still haven't addressed), and whatever is the cause of his on-going back pain.  We also ask for prayers for wisdom and perseverance as we try to make the best decisions regarding visitors, diet, and finding our "new normal" as a family.

Thanks again to all.

- Tim -

Back to Back Issues

(Mirroring the recent post on Caring Bridge)
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/danieljmiller/journal 

Daniel was back to visit the orthopedist at Riley yesterday.  He's been having back pain around the area of the original spinal fractures for about a year and a half now and it's been growing considerably worse lately ... not so much worse pain, but more frequent.  Most every night and often during the day, he complains about his lower back being "achy". 

For nearly a year, his upper back has begun bothering him too.  Originally, I thought it was more about poor posture than anything else, but over the past several months, I've noticed that his his shoulder muscles (traps) are constantly in knots - usually rock hard.  Several people have mistaken them for bones where there shouldn't be any.  So I've been pushing to get someone to take this seriously again.  This was part of what actually led to the leukemia diagnosis, but everyone agrees the leukemia doesn't explain what's going on with his back.

So we finally got an appointment back with the bone doc but his X-rays came back "fine".  Pretty much what I figured he was gonna say. :-(((  So he's prescribed a new brace for Daniel to wear that is supposed to improve his posture and help take any pressure off the area of the fractures and the "hunching" of his shoulders.  In general that's a good thing.  But I'm not at all convinced that's actually going to fix anything.  We'll see.  Hopefully, just dad being "difficult" again w.r.t. the medical community. 

Luckily, Daniel's not tooooo upset about having to wear a brace again.  He actually came to rely pretty heavily upon the last one even though it ultimately ended up doing more harm than good because it was formed wrong and actually pushed him into an incorrect posture.  (Dad is still kicking himself for staying with that doctor much longer than his intuition told him to.  *Sigh*)  Pray for me!!  Better yet, pray for that osteopath if this doesn't produce some results pretty quickly!  ha ha. :)

Please continue to pray for poor Daniel too as this just adds ANOTHER "thing" to his life.  Osteopaths, orthopedics, oncologists, hematologists, lymphoblasts, and chemotherapy have no business in the vocabulary of a 10 year old little boy.

- Tim / Dad -