Different Proceedures

Trey with the central line in place.

I am back tracking again to the next day, January 6th. We continued to learn much about his type of Leukemia, which is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL. According to the doctors, if he has to have leukemia, it is the best one to have. I guess that brings some comfort. The cure rate is between 88%-95%.

Just a quick Leukemia 101: Leukemia is cancer in the blood stream. So it goes throughout the whole body. The white blood cells in normal blood help attack infections in the body. How leukemia occurs is when a white blood cell (and it only takes one) turns "whacky" and basically starts to attack the other good white blood cells. These "whacky" white blood cells become "immortal" and can not be killed by the good white blood cells. So eventually they multiply and continue to attack the body. The only way to kill it is with the Chemo. Unfortunately the chemo does not recognize the difference between good and whacky white blood cells and it kills everything including red blood cells which are used for carrying oxygen to the different parts of the body and it will kill the platelets which help with the clotting of the blood. That is just a basic overview of what the cancer is doing to Trey.

On the 6th Trey had a few procedures done. One was to have a spinal tap or Lumbar puncture. This test is to see if there are any signs of the "whacky" white blood cells in the spinal fluid. Good news: Trey's fluid is currently clear. They will do more testing later on during the first month of chemo. Just as a precaution he was given a does of chemo in the spinal tap. That is normal to do even if there is no sign of the bad stuff. The other procedure was to get a sample of his bone marrow. This showed them that there was cancer in the marrow as was expected because that is where the white blood cells are produced. This will also show the doctors Trey's genetic make up. They do a lot of testing with this . What they find will help to determine the remainder of his chemo treatment. The last procedure he had was to have a port placed in the upper left part of his chest. This port will remain with him for the duration of the three years of chemo treatments. We opted for the port because it is placed under the skin and accessed with a needle when blood is to be drawn and treatments are given. It will make maintenance easier and allows Trey a more active lifestyle. Well there was a mix up and a central line was placed in instead. It functions the same as a port and could be used, but it leaves the tubing out and there is alot more care involved. He would not be able to go swimming and get it wet at all. Our doctor was not happy about it and things were investigated as to how this mistake was made. Anyway, Trey came out of it okay and he was on lots of pain medication for a while. The bone marrow asperation really hurt him and he would tell the nurse if it was a 1 with little pain or a 7 with alot of pain. He has been a super trooper.

Trey was really nervous to go to surgery, but when he found out he would be put under and he wouldn't feel a thing, he was alright with it. We walked down with him to the OR room and then we had to wait. It took about 2 hours before he woke up. He has done really great and hardly complains. I know he is trying hard to be brave.