Read the Jason Updates Read the messages that Jason and Melissa wrote during Jason's illness.
The Leukemia is Back: Friday, August 29, 2003
I don't even know what to say. As I'm typing this, we are still in a state of shock. His leukemia is back at approx. 10% - still a very early stage. But the doctors here feel that another transplant is not going to be of much help. The haplo transplant did in fact engraft, but the leukemia is now fighting Lex's cells. We think they will plan on giving Jason a "boost" of Lex's T-cells - the ones they removed from the Haplo transplant because they would fight too much against Jason. Now that all his cells are Lex's, they hope these cells will fight against the disease - initating aggressive GVLD (Graft vs. Leukemia Disease.) This boost will be late next week, and then we are coming home. It will be at least a week or two before any symptoms of GVLD begin, and in the mean time, we can all be in our own homes.
I'm not sure when or if we'll be coming back to MD Anderson. We really don't have any answers right now. The "what-ifs" are too plentiful. But we're not giving up and that's a promise.
Don't forget to click the Light The Night Walk link above to help us fight leukemia with the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society on October 1st. -Mel
