We don't have a whole lot to share, but sometimes no news is good news right? Tom did not end up with any graft vs. host. His last doctor's appointment was in January and his doctor said that had he showed some signs of gvhd that he would consider telling Tom that a return to work would be ok, but because he didn't he is nervous and unsure of Tom's current remission state. So he told Tom to just enjoy another two months off and a month or so from now he will have another bone marrow biopsy and with those results he will determine the course.
If Tom is still in remission he may possibly be released to work depending on the doc's confidence level in the remission status. If (God forbid) there is some evidence of relapse, he'll be back in for chemo, back to looking for another possible donor, and doing another full bone marrow transplant. There is obviously a lot of anxiety around this next bone narrow biopsy.
In other (very sad) news, this week we lost a really good friend who we met last year when Tom was in doing chemo. This guy was newly diagnosed with the same leukemia as Tom and he had a rough road ahead with many complications. He went to Stanford for his transplant in October and made it through but had graft vs host complications. He lost the ability to walk due to compressions in the back and later had lung issues. Long story short, I'm told he fought hard and that it was an unimaginably tough call in the end to take him off of life support, but his wife feels he definitely got the best care possible and that they did everything they could for him. He was a wonderful guy and he and Tom really connected, his wife visited us while Tom was in the hospital even though her husband was too (in Stanford). Please keep them in your prayers.
We received the news the night of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's award ceremony of which they'd asked Tom to speak and he still did. I'm very proud of him and I think he did a great job of letting people know what a good cause it is. (ps. There is no video of this)
That's all for now. Continued prayers for Tom please, we will keep you posted when he gets the results. Also, please pray for Tom's grandad who has been in the hospital, I'm told he is getting better.
