Friday, December 5, 2008

Day +133: Dasatinib Arrives

Sarah and her Mom (Susan)
Today







The drug designed to target Sarah's strain of leukemia (Dasatinib) arrived late in the afternoon today. We were anxious to get her started on the medication. Earlier in the day it looked like it might not show up until tomorrow (not good). At any rate, Sarah took her first 20mg pill tonight at 8:30pm. She'll be taking one 20mg pill at 8:00am and another at 8:00pm. She will also continue to receive chemotherapy similar to that used during her first induction.

Early this morning Sarah's oncologist gave us some great news. Sarah's white blood cell count went from 140,000 to 69,000 over the last day. This was a clear indication that the chemotherapy was being effective at killing the cancer cells in her blood. This should translate into some level of cancer cell reduction in her bone marrow too, but from our previous experience not the same level of reduction. We had to use Imatinib to get her bone marrow completely clear during her last induction. We are not using Imatinib this go around as her cancer cells have mutated and are now resistant to Imatinib. The Dasatinib will be replacing the Imatinib for Sarah's relapse induction.

More good news, Sarah's oxygen saturation level was normal all day. She had another x-ray today and there is still some cloudiness present, but reduced from Wednesdays x-ray. The doctors are still not sure what is causing this.

Sarah felt tired most of the day, but she is clearly in better shape than before we brought her back to the hospital and she seems to be heading in the right direction. She looked good and enjoyed visiting with her brothers and sisters and one set of grandparents.

I'd call today a good day for Sarah and her family. Again, I'm grateful to God for what he has given us.

Sarah's oncologist is diligent to remind us (kindly) of the real possibility that Sarah may not reach remission this time, but we are keeping that goal in site and remain hopeful. Please keep that goal in your prayers for Sarah too.

-Ben
Lamentations 3:24-26

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We continue to have Sarah and her family in our prayers. May God continue to give you strength to deal with this difficult time and decisions you have to make.

Regina Erdly
Lewisburg, Tn.