Day +40-Day +47

It's the holiday season.  I haven't posted anything in a week.  Last Friday, Steven's counts all went down.  They added two tests to look for antibodies on his RBC's, one of which is a Coombs Test.  We will get those results today.  Steven explained to me that it isn't unusual for the WBC's to fluctuate because White Blood Cells migrate into tissue and other parts of the body hence taking them out of circulation.

We did find out the results of the Chimera Test that was drawn last week.  The last time I heard the word chimera, it was in reference to our daughters over the top 6th grade mythology project at St. Leo the Great School in NJ.  She did a paper mache project of a chimera which was quite large.  It took two garbage days to rid our home of this beast.  Here is an explanation of the chimera related to bone marrow transplants from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance:

"A Chimera was a creature in Greek mythology usually represented as a composite of a lion, goat, and serpent. Contemporary use of the term “chimerism” in hematopoietic cell transplant derives from this idea of a “mixed” entity, referring to someone who has received a transplant of genetically different tissue. A test for chimerism after a hematopoietic stem cell transplant involves identifying the genetic profiles of the recipient and of the donor and then evaluating the extent of mixture in the recipient’s blood, bone marrow, or other tissue."

With that said, Steven's chimera test showed that he has 100% donor cells in circulation.  He could still have some of his cells in his bone marrow.  The only way to tell what is going on in there is to do a bone marrow.  They are still saying we don't need one at 30 days, the normal time to do one, because he counts seem ok for the time being.  He will get a bone marrow at the magical 100 day mark.

Steven's Coombs Test is normal.  They are going to blame the decrease in RBC's to medication and are suspending the prophylactic antibiotic Bactrim.