Unwelcome News

Today we heard that Steven's leukemia is back aggressively. Last week his blast (leukemia) cells were 0, this week they are 14%. It was such an unbelievable change that the doctor went to check the slides himself.

The doctor said many patients at this point choose to do no more therapy. He would live about a month.

The alternative is to start chemo immediately (which means being very ill again) and start to look for another bone marrow donor. Evidently this donor was too good a match for Steven, even though there was a single mismatch, and never caused graft host disease which they want to some extent.

Steven has to decide tonight and we go back to the hospital in the morning. He is very anemic and needs blood and platelets, needs to install another central line and have a bone marrow biopsy.

Steven's first reaction was that he had already fought this long, why would he give up now? He certainly knows what is involved. He is a brave man and of course his family will support his decision 100% and go into this positively and with hope.

Please keep Steve in your hearts and prayers.