End of the Induction Phase

Tomorrow is Day 29 of Ben's chemotherapy, the last day of what they call the "induction" phase. He'll have another bone marrow biopsy in the morning, the results of which will determine what happens next. We have every reason to believe that the blast cells will remain below 5% (apparently you just don't see kids who were in remission at Day 15 coming out of it by Day 29), but we need to see whether Ben has what they call Minimum Residual Disease (MRD). (I may be butchering the term -- I am writing from memory).

Personally, I am trying to adjust to being back to work. Ben just had a cryoprecipitate transfusion at the hospital, and I did not go. I didn't go yesterday when he went in for a fibrinogen blood test either. I will go tomorrow morning, as I'm trying to differentiate between routine and significant procedures. My partners and the other lawyers and staff at my firm have been great covering for me, but I really want to get back to normal and earn my living as soon as I can (some of you know that I was out with pneumonia for quite a while just before Ben was diagnosed). Next week I am taking a three-day business trip (one day of travel and two days of meetings), which is hard because we will be expecting bone marrow test results. But life has to go on.

Anyway, Ben got a Playstation 3 today from a very generous friend of his at school. So I am hoping to get him some games for it on the way home. I need to finish a big project first, so we'll see if the stores are still open when I leave!

I know I owe all of you a more detailed explanation of the prior bone marrow test results and Ben's future course of treatment. Don't worry, I'll get to it eventually . . .

Thanks again to everyone for the wonderful support. That's it for now.