Day +92

From the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance webpage:

A Chimera was a creature in Greek mythology usually represented as a composite of a lion, goat, and serpent. Contemporary use of the term “chimerism” in hematopoietic cell transplant derives from this idea of a “mixed” entity, referring to someone who has received a transplant of genetically different tissue. A test for chimerism after a hematopoietic stem cell transplant involves identifying the genetic profiles of the recipient and of the donor and then evaluating the extent of mixture in the recipient’s blood, bone marrow, or other tissue.

Today Claire was tested to determine chimerism, or the perentage of donor marrow to host marrow. She had a bone marrow aspirate on one side of her hips and a bone marrow biopsy on the other. An aspirate takes a small sample, through a needle, of the liquid part of the marrow, while the biopsy, also using a needle, removes a sample of the solid part of the marrow. Thankfully these procedures were done in the Rapid Treatment Unit instead of the OR, which makes it much easier. They use light anesthesia and she is only in recovery for an hour or less. We spent most of that time talking about food and restaurants with the nurses, who know us pretty well by now. She didn't even use a wheel chair when we left. On Thursday Claire will have an echocardiogram to see how her heart is functioning after all of this business, plus a pulmonary function test to see how her lungs are holding up. They took extra precautions during radiation to protect her lungs, but there could still be some damage. They also reduced her immunosuppressant a little bit more and took her off her liver medication. Since going back on Dasatinib her platelets have been dropping (which always makes a cancer mom nervous), so last week they cut her Dasatinib dosage in half. Today her platelets were back up, almost doubling from what they had dropped to. Yea! Next Tuesday, on actual day 99, we will have her 100 day evaluation and find out the results of all of these tests. We are hoping (and praying) that she is a true Chimera, which means either (1) an organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as...grafting...or, (2) a fire breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. Maybe she'll be both.

     Playing a fun game given to us by our neighbor.

       Sitting on the floor may not seem like a big deal, but she wouldn't have even tried it a month ago.

    Claire's sweet new dynasplints (she has two) that help stretch her ankles and calves.

          Recovering in the RTU.

Of course we went to lunch after. The tiny little juice boxes make me laugh, but Claire can't have drinks out of a machine because of potential bacteria, and this was the only sealed drink PeiWei had, haha.

                         That's my girl. I hope.