One month update: Getting There

Bonnie entered UCSF about a month ago when her leukemia relapsed. There were a few days of additional testing, then she began her chemotherapy on Tuesday, May 3rd, with the expectation she would be in the hospital about a month. Fourteen days after her chemotherapy began, there was initial testing that demonstrated the level of cancer cells in her blood had decreased -- a good sign.

Later, Bonnie had additional chemotherapy designed to "deepen" her remission when it became clear that a bone marrow transplant might take longer than expected to initiate due to lack of a match. Because of this additional chemo, Bonnie's stay in the hospital is a little longer than expected.

Because of the chemotherapy Bonnie's immune system is compromised. At this point Bonnie's physicians monitor her neutrophils -- her white blood cells-- and wait until they return to a level which can withstand everyday bacteria and infections. Today, Bonnie's neutrophil count is 20 and the minimum threshhold for discharge is 500. (A normal neutrophil count is between 4,000 and 8,000.) By watching her neutrophil count daily, we'll get a pretty good sense of when she will be heading home to Burlingame.

Once her neutrophil counts are back to 500, there will be a few additional days where, one-by-one, the various antibiotics that Bonnie is currently on, will be withdrawn. Once she is off these antibiotics, and hasn't presented any infections, she'll be cleared to go home. The current best guess for Bonnie's arrival in Burlingame is sometime this weekend.

Once Bonnie is home, we will wait about a week for her blood counts to stabilize, then she will have another bone marrow biopsy to see if she is in remission.

Bonnie is well. It's great that she hasn't had any infections over the last month (aside from her initial infection). Her most common complaint is that she is bored, and, of course, she's eager to go home.