2 Year Bone Marrow Results

We just had our official 2 year checkup a couple of weeks ago and the results are already in!  We are certainly becoming pros at the MD Anderson/bone marrow thing!  We were sitting there in the office waiting and I was looking around and you can pick the new people out in a heartbeat.... so scared, so confused, not sure what is going on or what to expect.  Those are the people who always ask you what kind of blood cancer your husband has and want to talk about it.  The long timers are cool with reading the paper, LOL.  :)  I always love to talk to the new folks and try to give them a reassuring word.  Learning the ropes at MDA definitely takes a while!

When Dr. Quintas came in to see us he immediately asked, "So, why are you here today??!  I look at your numbers and they look great and I'm thinking why is this man here to see me?"  He cracks me up.  You just have to hear him with his spanish accent.  Adorable.  Anyways, he had a bone marrow aspiration and got some PCR results.  Remember last time when the results were "less than .01%"?  Well this time they just left off the less than part.  So his 2 year PCR is .01%.  We would have liked to have seen a repeat of the "less than", but, well, its beyond my control so what can we even say about that?!  I asked Josh what he thought about it and his response was, "Honestly, I do my best not to think about it at all."  And then he winked at me.  :)  He has a thousand opinions about everything in the world but none about this, evidently!  I'll be anxious to see Dr. Quintas in a few months and get his opinion on this bumpy ride at the bottom of the PCR results.

• April 2011     91.43 %
• July 2011         5.19 %
• October 2011     .09 %
• January 2012      .08% 
• April 2012          .02% 
• November 2012  less than .01%
• May 2013            .01%

So shockingly he doesn't have to go back for another BMA for an entire year!!  Isn't that exciting?  Since he can't drink alcohol anymore I think he's kinda gonna miss that post-Propofol drunk feeling!  But he definitely won't miss being sore.  I was a bit nervous about not having a PCR result for a whole year but they told us they will now be using his blood to test PCR levels.  Why on earth they haven't done that all along I don't know.  I have read so many blogs/message boards where folks have talked about getting PCR results from blood and I was a bit frustrated Josh couldn't do that.  I understand that the number of bone marrows was dictated by the drug trial protocol, but still wanted to get more PCR results.  I'm just nosy like that!  Now we don't go back till August and then get to meet with Dr. Quintas in November. 

Thanks so much for keeping up with us, friends!  It really means a lot to get those emails/calls/texts checking on Joshua and seeing how we are doing.  We love you guys!