Bone marrow biopsy results were delayed and we got a partial result back from the flow cytometry that showed 2.4% blasts still present in her marrow. So we proceeded witht the 2 different outpatient chemo drugs at the beginning of November. The medications were nelaribine and asparaginase. She recieved these about every other day over about 6 days. Then a couple of weeks later, she got another bone marrow biopsy to see if we eliminated all of the blasts. We got those results and unfortunately, there were still blasts in her marrow. They dropped from 2.4% to 1.8%. The BMT doctor, Dr. Hill, discussed options with us. We could continue with more chemo or move forward with the transplant. The chemo has been keeping the blasts really low, in remission zone, however not completely eliminating them. So she suspected continuing chemo would yield the same results plus subject Shannon to a lot more chemo. So we decided to proceed with the transplant.
Shannon started having really high blood sugars and also high triglycerides. We were able to determine that this was a side effect from the asparaginase that she received a week or so prior. These two labs were so high the doctor admitted her to the hospital at St. Luke’s for a couple of days. They consulted an endocrinologist and put her on some meds to control the high glucose and triglycerides. It took a few days but it finally started coming down. Still high but at least not dangerously high.
We were working up our son Q to be the donor but one of his labs was just slightly out of range. He’s completely healthy and there wasn’t any concern, but they only want to use him if everything was in perfect range. The doctor and coordinator told us they were already working up the unrelated 10 out of 10 match. She agreed to be the donor and everything was looking good. The only info we have on her is that she’s a 25 year old hispanic female somewhere in the United States(Texas possibly). So they went ahead and scheduled admission to Methodist Hospital BMT unit for December 6th. This will be approximately a 30 day admission.
Shannon also had to get another PET scan prior to this admission to make sure there was no cancer anywhere else in her body. The PET scan was clear. She also visited our dentist and got a dental clearance. This is required prior to a bone marrow transplant just to make sure there’s no dental cavities/infections. During the transplant, her immune system will be non-existant until the donor cells begin to grow and make new white blood cells. Everything was good at the dentist and she was ready for Dec. 6th BMT admission.