So, upon arriving at Robert Wood, and Meeting Dr Strair, we realize there is a team of doctors (pathologists, oncologists, hematologists, etc) figuring out exactly what Chris has. They do a bone marrow biopsy, they start looking at all Chris's scans from JFK (there are A LOT).
They decide to start radiation focused just on the spots where there the lesions on his back were. There are 3 short treatments over 3 days. Pretty cool that they tatoo (pencil mark size) the spots so they know where to aim the radiation. Steroids have already helped him walk.
Dr Strair lets us know they are still working on the exact leukemia diagnosis... Eventually we find out... Dr Strair decides to have a meeting. Chris invites all his closest friends/fam to come hear what the doctor is going to explain about his diagnosis. Grandma Rita and Aunt Cathy come. I meet them. They are great. My parents and brother also come. He tape recorded Dr Strair... We learn that its called acute extra medular leukemia. (or exo medulary... I always forget which is the right way to say it) Its on the outside of his bones. Most leukemia is found intially from blood tests.. Its usually in the blood... Bone marrow biopsies usually confirm... Chris's is very different... His bone marrow has no leukemia... His bloodwork looks fine...
According to the doctors, your body is like a factory... The bone marrow makes your blood cells (platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells). Platelets help you clot. Red blood cells carry oxygen through blood, and white blood cells are your immune system... what helps fight infection.. sometimes something goes wrong in the factory, but usually, in a normal human being, the factory fixes the mistake... With Chris, however, something went wrong, it doubled, no one fixed it, and boom we have a problem
Chris was at Ground Zero for a few days doing Rescue and Recovery. (He was a volunteer firefighter in North Jersey) Supposedly, his factory malfunction has nothing to do with environment or things he has been exposed to. but, I dont quite buy that.. there was some pretty harsh shit in the air at Ground Zero.. but thats not gonna change the now, so thats all i am going to say about that
They are going to start chemo on this day. Saturday June 14th. Radiation had already started. Chemo is going to be running over 7 days. They actually took him down to special surgeries department and put in a central line in before the meeting that Saturday June 14th. Basically they insert a triple lumen catheter into his main artery in his neck. Its an I-V into his artery. There are 3 tubes (forgive my terrible medical vocabulary) hanging out of this neck. It freaked me out at first. At this point, back in early June, I was the girl who doesnt mind blood but cannot even look at my own veins. wait til we get to September and October blogs... see photo attached with Chris' triple lumen
Oh, by the way, the bone marrow biopsy... yea... they basically drill, err.. put a huge needle into his hip bone to draw some marrow. Poor Chris...
This is all very overwhelming. In this meeting, Strair basically tells us that this leukemia is very aggressive and the best option is to have a bone marrow transplant. He will have chemo monthly until they see how its working and also search for a donor. There is a huge database. Millions of donors. They look for similar body makeup. There is a good chance that Chris's body is like Ford pick-up with easy to find parts (making the ability to find a match or donor easier) but he could be a rare model and have a hard time to find a matching donor. Unfortunately Chris's 6 siblings are all half siblings. Basically, there is no better chance of them matching than the few of the millions that they will hopefully find a match from. If he had whole siblings, there would have been a 25% chance of a perfect match. So, the search starts. The chemo starts. They tell us about this induction chemo.. Its intense. Tons of possible side effects. We are in for the ride. Basically, if we just did chemo, there is a huge chance the leukemia will come back.. and it comes back worse. Bone marrow transplant is scary and not a guarantee, but if its successful, its basically a cure, so to speak. The transplant procedure is not IT. There is a year of recovery and possible and likely complications.
THey also do a spinal tap to check the spinal cord fluid about 2 days into chemo. THey put chemo in the spinal canal just to make sure we kill anything that might be in there. That fluid comes back leukemia-free too. See picture in this post of Chris laying flat after the spinal.
Chris has his age, overall health, good spirits, and God on his side. He is strong. I am strong and we are gonna get through this...
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