Cytogenetic Results
I am making myself post this tonight, as I have been putting it off since Thursday. I can’t describe our emotions in this post, I can only give you the information. We’re still processing all of this…
Late Thursday afternoon we received the results of the analysis done on Ethan’s bone marrow. It took over a week to receive this information, as it is sent to a private lab somewhere in the country that performs the analysis.
Essentially they look at the make-up of Ethan’s Leukemia cells, taken during the bone marrow sampling. By looking at the chromosomes of the leukemia cells, they can determine more spefically the type of leukemia that we are dealing with. We learned that Ethan’s leukemia cells have only one 7 chromosome, instead of two. This is called Monosomy 7. This changes his course of therapy. While this leukemia is still AML, they’ve been able to define the exact make-up of the cells, and know how to deal with it. Here’s the good news – the doctors know what this means, and they know what needs to be done to give Ethan the best odds of recovering. Ethan will need a bone marrow transplant (also called Hematopoietic stem cell transplant – HSCT). If all goes accordingly, this would come after his second round of chemo, in approximately the third month.
Ideally, the donor is a sibling. Emma, Eliot, Yancy and I, had our blood tests done on Friday. There is a 25% chance that a sibling matches. We can only hope and pray that we have a match…We will find out in 1-2 weeks what these results are.
I will write more in regards to this over the next few days.
Posted in Ethan's Fight, Uncategorized
May 21st, 2007 at 7:05 AM
Johanna and Yancy!
We will be HOPING for an exact match soon!
Dawn and Jim
May 21st, 2007 at 10:32 AM
Yancy, Johanna, Emma, Ethan and Eliot!
You guys are in every one of our prayers. Dave and I will be at Children’s on Thursday morning to donate platelets….if you need for us to bring ANYTHING (and I mean anything), do let us know! We will also have our blood typed to see if we are donor matches for Ethan as well!
Hang in there guys!
Dave, Chrissy, Brenna, Alli, and Colin Schaefer
May 21st, 2007 at 7:49 PM
Lents – you are in our prayers and thoughts every day. I am coming up Tuesday at 1:00 to donate platlets and have sent the call out to everyone I work with or know in Boston. I never want to hear there isn’t enough for a full transfusion for Ethan. I will check in on you guys before I go to donate. Email me if you want me to bring – anything – Lunch – I am taking orders!
May 21st, 2007 at 9:39 PM
Johanna,
I am thinking of you guys all the time — I’ve sent out the word to the Gift of Hearing Foundation I work with about the need for platelets, and I am very hopeful some of the other board members will donate. I am soooo bummed that I found out my husband and I won’t be able to donate blood for one year because we were just in Morocco and there is concern about potential exposure to malaria (though we were not in any malaria risk regions as far as I can tell) but better safe than sorry, even though I am extremely sorry I can’t help personally with platelets. Jeremy says Hi to Ethan!
May 24th, 2007 at 7:13 AM
Hi Guys: I breath deep whenever I read your blog. You are the stongest family I know and this will be your ultimate test. Johanna – I’ve always described you to people who don’t know you as “SuperMom” and that you are an example to us all – full of love, patience and understanding that I wish I had. You will soon look back at this time of your life and smile and say we made through this – we can do anything. We are here for you always and think of you and Ethan every minute. Your blog entries will make a great memoir. We love you guys. Love, Kelly, Dave, Maddi, Jake and Riley.