[JoMac53]

Okay, so transplant doctor is a little concerned about the high number of white cells but more concerned that there are a lot of abnormal monocytes and so now I have to see a leukemia specialist on July 3. The tumor board is reviewing my case that morning and may recommend I have chemo before transplant, either Vidaza or Dacogen, which she was already considering for the blasts if they were high. But she didn't seem concerned about them being 6-9%, which keeps me in the same category as last BMB, MDS-EB-1. But now she thinks perhaps the leukemia specialist will recommend some other chemo because of the aberrant monocytes.

Blasts on aspirate smear were 6%, 9% by flow cytometry and < 3% by IHC. Lab report says that IHC disparity may be due to sampling variance or methodology. I've never seen an IHC (Immunohistochemistry) number before but this BMB was processed at a different lab than my other two were and it's very different with loads more info on it, a lot of which I don't understand yet.

On the bright side, I have three 10/10 matches, one 11/11 match and one 12/12 match, all young men in their early 20s who have shown a level of commitment to donate so far as to have had follow up blood tests after their initial swab tests. And, she says, that means no radiation pre-transplant.

If they do recommend chemo that will post-pone transplant but otherwise she was talking about 4 weeks! But I still have dental issues that need to be resolved and I don't think she knows how slow dental clinics for low-income people can move. I wish Medicare would pay for dental so I could go to a regular dentist and just get it done.

I may copy most of this post to a new thread in the "Tell your story" forum because I never started one there. I'm not good at journaling or keeping a diary or anything but I may feel more like posting stuff as this goes on so why not. lol