HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAC!!!

Yesterday in the clinic, they brought him balloons, and this tshirt, which he will wear today. And the best present of all is that his labs looked good yesterday!!! Small steps on the road to bone marrow recovery!

Since I do all the "talking"on the blog, today I thought I would interview Mac so you can hear from him....

ME: How do you feel today, your 12th birthday?
MAC: 12-ish
ME: What do you want for your birthday?
MAC: stuff
ME: What kind of cake do you want?
MAC: chocolate
ME: Any words of wisdom for your fans out there?
MAC: Nope
ME: Want me to stop asking you questions?
MAC: Yes.

Ahhh... such complex and insightful answers. You can see why I have done all the writing the last few months!! Thanks for checking in and praying. I think he'll get extra blessings (and hopefully extra blood cells) on his birthday!

We made it back Sunday and had school and clinic yesterday. His platelets continue to move up, now we really need his hemoglobin to kick in... and soon!!! Mac's only outing when we were home last week was to get beignets at Cafe Du Monde. He'd been wanting some and he tells everyone here what a beignet is.

Please keep those positive vibes and prayers coming our way!! I feel like his bone marrow really wants to work!!

I realize I haven't written in a while, but we've been really busy. On Friday, Feb. 12, we had our normal appointment in the clinic and since we're in this wait & see mode, we asked for a week off and the doctors thought it would be ok. So we are in NO for the week! It's been great being home and seeing everyone we haven't seen in 7 months! And just being home with Peter and Annie has been fun. We skipped the Mardi Gras scene, but had lots of beads delivered to our door so we didn't feel left out. We'll be back in Memphis by Sunday and back to our schedule of school, PT, and clinic.

Let's hope his counts go up and the BMT continues to move out of the picture! Thanks for praying and checking in.

WHO DAT! Here's a new bead we thought you all would appreciate! Thanks Raye for sending them to us!

Can you see it? It's a flying pig!! Perfect for Dat Tuesday or Lombardi Gras!! Wish we were in that number!! (I obviously spend way too much time on NOLA.com!)

Since our Memphis cheer 2 weeks ago was good luck, here's another one!! GO SAINTS!! WHO DAT?!

For all of you on this roller coaster ride with us, hold on.... yesterday our very wise Hematology team decided to put the HSCT on hold for a couple of months. Mac's platelets have decided to kick in, slowly, and the baby red blood cells (reticulocytes) are showing a tiny improvement. His ANC has remained in the low range of normal lately. There are some genetic tests they want to run and the results take a month to get back. There is some ambiguity in what those results might show, but it may or may not make a transplant a necessity. (Even if the results are negative, a transplant may become necessary anyway if his counts trend downward again. Did I confuse you?) It's all relatively new stuff, but FYI, telomere length is the buzzword of 2010. (You can say you heard it here and work it into your casual conversations if you want to be in the know. Telomeres are the ends of chromosomes, kind of like aglets are the ends of shoe laces.) Anyway, we're back to waiting and hoping we see an upward trend in the next 6 to 8 weeks. Although I've been accused of being a pessimist, or as I prefer to call myself a realist, I told them to keep our room on the transplant floor reserved for April. We'll see if we get there. Hopefully not. They really want to give this treatment plan a little longer, and rule out genetic issues.

So there you have it. The double loop for the day. Let's pray that Mac's bone marrow rebounds in the next few weeks and the genetic/chromosome tests come back negative! As always, thanks for checking in, praying for us, and thinking of us. Who Dat!!

We heard today that donor #2 passed the physical! So it only changed everything by one day. As of now, the transplant date is March 5 and everything works backward from there. He will go in next Thursday evening and start the Campath on Friday the 12th. Then out again if he's doing ok, then in a week later for the chemo work up. We are hoping his old, failing bone marrow will roll out the red carpet for the new marrow, and that the new marrow will feel comfortable in its new bones and not attack any organs (graft versus host)!! That's the nonmedical terms for the goal of the transplant! (While I've become a part time hematologist, I haven't quite specialized in HSCT yet... so laymen's terms will suffice for now.)

I am very thankful for Donor #2 and their unselfish giving of healthy bone marrow to Mac! (Who dat say they wanna donate marrow?) It's also time to start praying for the transplant doctors! As we learned before (remember September?) it gets tricky keeping everything happy and trying to accomplish the main goal. There will be days when Mac is feeling really bad, but all we can do is count the days.... everyday on the other side is a positive day! Thanks for checking in! And Mac said Go Saints, Finish Strong!