Luke did not wait until Monday.  His temperature spiked last night and he is now resident in the MDA ER.  He has chest pain and an x-ray showed lung fluid.  They do not know if the fluid is that from the leukemia or pneumonia.  He is on antibiotics and pain meds and for now is  comfortable.  Admissions paperwork is being processed.  My guess is he will be here a few days. 

Dear All

This is not an email I ever expected to write, but today Luke found out his leukemia has returned.  He came home last week for spring break with a bad case of shingles that kept him on his back all week,  Yesterday he went in for his quarterly blood work at M D Anderson.  Blood work showed a low platelet count.  They did bone marrow today and found blast cells.  He meets with his oncologist Monday. 

As before please keep Luke in your thoughts and prayers. 

Dave and Gayle

Bionic Man

Luke is one half of a bionic man. Got his first hip today. All went well but it's been a long day. Arrived at 7 am and finally made it up to the floor at 4:30. Won't be getting him out of bed until tomorrow.

The best news is his right hip is painless for the first time in months. A big problem is being able to postion himseld so the left hip doesn't bother him. The happy juice has taken care of the discomfort for now. He will be in St Luke's until at least Thursday.

Regards

Dave and Gayle

THANKSGIVING DAY

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I just realized it has been quite some time since the blog has been updated. I assume everyone has figured out by now that no news is good news!
Luke continues to do well. Doctors are still adjusting his meds for his maintenance phase of chemotherapy. Looks as if it is going to take a while to get him at the proper levels of medication. Meanwhile he is enjoying not making the weekly trip to MDA, as he is now going for labs every other week.
He received the official word from THE U (Miami) this week that they are actually taking him back! He is counting the days until he gets back to school like a little kid waiting for Christmas.
Luke continues to play most Saturday nights at Rudy's. So if you are intown and need some cheap entertainment (although tips are encouraged!)stop on by.
While we are very thankful to all of the incredible doctors and nurses at MDA, we never could have made it through this past year without all of you! We are extremely thankful for your love, friendship and support. Today we have much to celebrate.

Luke is at it again

Counts are back up. Threshold for re-starting chemo is an ANC of 750. He came in today at 870. Dr. Wells said its not abnormal for Luke's counts to take that long to recover. The chemo just wears the body down.

Luke started back with a dose of vincristine and will be taking mercaptopurine, methotrexate and a steroid orally. Methotrexate will be cut way back (a dose of 4 pills down from 16).

Luke is now the fatasshat as he is tipping the scales at 153 pounds. He has also taken up genealogy exploring his Lithuanian roots. Pictured is his research outfit.

STILL NEED BLOOD. if you can donate please get back to me. Have close to 30 slots to fill the afternoon of the 7th.

Finally Bailey says GO HURRICANES!

Wednesday October 13

Luke had his counts check today and again failed. ANC dropped to 300 from around 700 hundred last week. He needs to have a minimum of 750 before they will start chemo again. Platelets dropped to around 60 from 70 last week (normal there is 140). Hemoglobin is low at around 7.

Luke was again assured response is typical for the start of maintenance. His blood did show a lot of immature white cells which will need to mature to kick up the ANC.

Luke's energy level is not great but he is not complaining about feeling bad.

That's the latest and greatest. Hopefully Luke will devote more time to studying this week and pass next weeks exam. With recieving a passing grade he can restart the chemo and get on with getting the right dose figured out.

Latest

Luke had his counts checked Wednesday, two weeks after starting maintenance. As expected getting to the right chemo dose is going to take some trial and error. He feels fine but his ANC came back low and platelets dropped. He will be off all chemo for a week to let his counts recover to acceptable levels and will then start anew with a lower dose of chemo.

Expect he will be playing at Rudy's Saturday night for anyone wishing to attend.