LUCK FEUKEMIA!!!

There are a lot of green "luck feukemia" bracelets around. I challenge everyone, if you're asked about what your green bracelet means, to give it away, and challenge who you give it away with to email a picture of the bracelet in a ridiculous/exotic location...we just started and the winners so far are Brisbane, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. Luck Feukemia!!!! All pics will be published and please, if you can donate money to the LEUKEMIA and LYMPHOMA Society (www.lls.org) or sign up to be in the bone marrow bank (www.marrow.org) do it!

Luck Feukemia!

This sucks!  Luke was admitted to MDA at 4 am with a temperature.  He has no white cells.  He's on  medication to increase white cells production but his counts have not bottomed out from the last chemo.  MDA is running blood to check for bacterial infection.  Expect results in 24 hours. 

Luke's temperature has come down but he's still dealing with a headaches and nausea.  Being off steroids there is not much of an appetite.

Kendall and Tony were in town for their shower.  It's official, Kendall is a perfect HLA match giving Luke the option of a bone marrow transplant. 

We also talked to the docs at MDA about a trial they are doing with t cell therapy.  They are using genetically modified t cells to kill off leukemia infected white blood cells.  The t cell therapy would be done in conjunction with a bone marrow transplant.  Results look promising and it may be an option for Luke.

That's it for now.              

            

International Luck Feukemia!!!

So there is now an around the world competition. Let's see how far the "Luck Feukemia" bracelet can travel. Send the pictures!

Chemo Round 2

Luke is finished with his the third day of chemo and he's doing okay.  No nausea.  He had a slight temperature Wednesday night but nothing since.  He's been bothered by a headache and joint pain but they are staying top of it with the meds.  He got his port Wednesday and that area of his chest is tender.  Appetite is not great but he is eating.  His blood counts dropped from the chemo so got a couple of units of blood today and that seemed to help with the headache. 

Early afternoon Luke did a couple laps around the floor and played on the guitar.  Chemo followed at 3 and since chemo its been a quiet evening.

Luke hasn't talked to the transplant team but he did hear from Dr. Wells that one of the sisters is a match.  Don't know which sister, but knowing there is a match is good news as it provides another treatment option.   If Luke decides on a transplant he will still get a couple of more rounds of chemo to kill off the residual cancer cells prior to the transplant.  
   

REMISSION!

From Luke's Face Book page yesterday "april 11, 2013 and i am in remission. forever in debt for the love and support i continue to receive from so many incredible folks, i wouldn't be where i am without it all. now i'm gonna keep up my end of the deal and keep kicking ass and keepin' on. LUCK FEUKEMIA. you guys rule."

Remission means they found no blast cells in the bone marrow they took Wednesday.  This is what Dr. Wells was hoping for and what we were praying for.  Luke still has a long way to go, but for now his bone marrow is producing good blood cells.

With leukemia being a blood borne cancer, the leukemia cells can be anywhere in his body.  Chemo may make him symptom free but the only way to know whether the chemo eradicated all of the cancer cells is the passage of time.  

Luke will continue with aggressive chemo over the next several weeks, after that we don’t know what the path forward will be.  After Luke went into remission the first time around the treatment protocol was +30 months of chemo.  With relapsing there is increased probability that chemo will not be entirely effective and the cancer will again return.   

Getting Luke into remission does make a bone marrow transplant more of a possibility.  Whether Luke will receive a transplant depends on a number of factors, but a major one is finding a compatible donor.  Luke met with the transplant team at MDA a couple of weeks ago   If Luke’s decides to go the transplant route he will leave the care of Dr. Wells and become the patient of the transplant team for 100 days. 

Early last week Luke was taken off the steroids cold turkey.  After going off the steroids Luke experienced severe joint pain.  Gayle took him to the ER Tuesday when the pain became unmanageable.  They were able to get the pain under control.  They started him on lower dose of steroids and are going to try to wean him off. 

Luke is off of chemo until next Wednesday.  Wednesday he will be admitted to MDA for five consecutive days of chemo.  During the stay he will also have surgery to remove his PICC line and give him a port.

Except for the joint pain Luke is doing well.  The new pair of studio monitors Luke invested in arrived this week.  Firing up the monitors seemed to have helped with pain mitigation!  Expect to see Luke at the blood and Be the Match donor registry drive Saturday.  

We’ll take the good news of this week and deal with whatever next week brings.  Luke and the Novick family appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers.  

God bless

Update April 4th

There is not much to report.  this week was pretty routine week.  Overall Luke is doing great.  Blood counts are creeping up.  Appetite is good.  Hair is thinning. 

Luke played with the Motley Rockers last Friday at Jim Curtin's surprise b'day party.  He was on his feet all night and up late.  The next day he was moving pretty slow but I guarantee putting the guitar in his hands and having him play was the best possible therapy for him (as well an Gayle and me).  Motley Rockers thanks.  Jim your timing for your 50th birthday could not have been better.   

Luke's last dose of erwinia is tomorrow.  After tomorrow he's off until next Wednesday when they will draw bone marrow and spinal fluid and look for blast cells.

After next Wednesday Luke will be off chemo until the Wednesday of the following week.  The following week he will get wacked with the start of the second round of chemo.  To start the second round he will be inpatient for 5 days and get three different chemos. 

Beth was in town last weekend.  Kendall will be in town this weekend. 

Everyone that has signed up to donate on the 13th thanks.  If can donate there are still plenty of slots available late morning and through the afternoon.  If you would like to donate shoot me an email at lukesblood@earthlink.net and give me a time. 

That's it for now.  Keep the prayers coming.

Dave



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