VanDerBilt Hospital Nashville - 8th March

8th March we went to Nashville. Steven, Laura and I. Frank babysat their little puppy - simply the cutest doglet in the world, and kept the computer shop open.

We sat in the waiting room under the signs that read "Stem Cell Transplant Unit". It is unreal that we are involved in this stuff - its simply not right. Its simply not the way things should be. This is my child, dammit! He has stayed away from "the bad side" of all the temptations out there, he has lead an honest, clean life with work and personal ethics that are scarce in todays world - especially amongst this age group. He works for whatever he has and is just a really great person. It is not fair or right that this is happening to him! But we all know that life is not fair at all - it just is.

The specialist up at Vanderbilt Hospital was fantastic. He explained everything so clearly. Steven asked questions, I did and we got a clearer view of this monster. We can fight it! We will fight it. It is treatable and there is a really good shot at him even being cured if he goes for the bone marrow transplant, and maybe even through medications in the future. A transplant is not something we are looking at right now - the risks are fairly high and treatment with Gleevec will hopefully bring his blood count down and tame those crazy chromosomes.

I know that I felt better after talking to Doctor K - we understood more clearly that this was a 'good leukemia' to get, because it is treatable and with the new medications coming up, he has a really great chance of controlling this disease.

So now he starts taking Gleevec this week - 400mg dosage and we will all picture healthy chromosomes and healthy blood and great success in dealing with this disease.