“Lovely” Test Result

Last week at clinic Ethan had extra blood drawn for analysis. Given that he is now 6 months post transplant, they do a test called a chimerism test, which analyzes Ethan’s white blood cells to see if they are Eliot’s. While the doctor was explaining the test, she told me that the results are reported in a percentage, and while we want to see 100%, rarely is anyone 100%, more often 97-98% (similar to a baby’s APGAR test score at birth, rarely a 10, more often a 9 for some small reason). Today we received the results that Ethan’s white blood cells are 100% Eliot’s cells, which means Ethan’s bone marrow is 100% Eliot’s as well.

While we knew Ethan was doing great, and his transplant was a success, these results confirm how successful it actually was! We are thrilled. What we don’t fully understand yet is how this may impact Ethan’s prognosis. We know it doesn’t guarantee us anything. We know Ethan is doing great, looking great, feeling great. We know that every day, week, month longer we go, he’s that much closer to being out-of-the-woods. We feel that every hurdle Ethan leaps over is one step closer to him living a cancer-free life. We know that Eliot’s gift to Ethan was the gift of life, and we can only hope it is a cure…forever a cure…