Early Thursday morning, our super heroes will don their capes and return to Salt Lake City--this time, it will be for 100+ days. This call to action came in Tuesday evening.
Thursday at 1PM, they have an appointment with RobDob's radiologist to talk about the treatment plan for the bumps on his leg. Based on what Robert and Ashley know at this point, he will first receive radiation on his leg bumps to kill the leukemia cells. Then, he will receive about 5 days of full-body radiation and a couple days of chemo. After that, he will receive his second bone marrow transplant.
Our super hero's sister (and hero!), Amanda, will once again be Robert's bone marrow donor. The biggest difference between this bone marrow transplant and the first one will be that this time the doctors will not give Robert anti-rejection medication as early on as they did during his first transplant. They will wait--probably until after he shows signs of host vs. graft disease.
Based on my understanding, the blessing of Robert getting host vs. graft disease is that once Amanda's bone marrow takes over in his body, her marrow will recognize leukemia cells as the enemy and kill them if they ever start to grow again. Because Robert didn't get host vs. graft disease with the first transplant, Amanda's marrow didn't build up an immunity to Robert's leukemia cells. (I hope I don't have to edit and correct this info later on, but that may happen because my knowledge about host vs. graft is somewhat limited. If you know better than I, please leave a comment).
From what we hear, super heroes are not exempt from the miseries of radiation. So, please continue to keep Robert in your prayers.
Thursday at 1PM, they have an appointment with RobDob's radiologist to talk about the treatment plan for the bumps on his leg. Based on what Robert and Ashley know at this point, he will first receive radiation on his leg bumps to kill the leukemia cells. Then, he will receive about 5 days of full-body radiation and a couple days of chemo. After that, he will receive his second bone marrow transplant.
Our super hero's sister (and hero!), Amanda, will once again be Robert's bone marrow donor. The biggest difference between this bone marrow transplant and the first one will be that this time the doctors will not give Robert anti-rejection medication as early on as they did during his first transplant. They will wait--probably until after he shows signs of host vs. graft disease.
Based on my understanding, the blessing of Robert getting host vs. graft disease is that once Amanda's bone marrow takes over in his body, her marrow will recognize leukemia cells as the enemy and kill them if they ever start to grow again. Because Robert didn't get host vs. graft disease with the first transplant, Amanda's marrow didn't build up an immunity to Robert's leukemia cells. (I hope I don't have to edit and correct this info later on, but that may happen because my knowledge about host vs. graft is somewhat limited. If you know better than I, please leave a comment).
From what we hear, super heroes are not exempt from the miseries of radiation. So, please continue to keep Robert in your prayers.
From what I hear, there are proteins on the surface of cancerous cells that can be isolated and, with proper training and the help of an immuno-booster, the immune system will then be able to clearly identify these cells and carry on their continuous fight in a normal way; the cancerous cells now sticking out "like a sore thumb." This was labeled "breakthrough" material in the media a week or so ago but I have yet to find it online again. Perhaps this is what they are doing now. The process worked on three different kinds of cancer.
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