Lovebuch family happenings

Life rarely goes as planned, and treatment is no exception. The plan was to administer some chemo to knock the leukemia back and then go on the car-t trial. However, the little amount I had put me in remission and now I’m off the car-t trial and prepping for stem cell transplant. The plan was to knock it back just a little (my bone marrow while I was in Swedish was reported at 30%--nothing to sneeze at), so Dr. Shustov ordered ¼ of the normal dose of Cytarabine, and removed another chemo from the typical induction dose, methotrexate, entirely. The “whiff” of cytarabine (Dr. Shustov’s word) apparently really connected with my leukemia cells and killed enough of them that I am in remission at the moment according to flow cytometry. Our hypothesis was that the leukemia this go around happened to be highly sensitive to cytarabine. Dr. Shustov was quite surprised that I was put into remission by such a weak dose. This is, of course, good news. However, it was not the plan, and when I first

We're trying to use these weeks before Derek's next phase of treatment (more to come in DerekPost ™ later this week) to get out and have a little bit of family fun. Last friday we took a hike to Talapus Lake and in the Alpine Lake Wilderness area. Alpen spent the first half hour or so swiveling his head from side to side, taking in the new scenery, but for most of the rest of the hike he slept pretty well in the carrier. We enjoyed some sandwiches from PCC at the lake and then, on our way home, stopped at a new favorite place in NorthBend called SwirlYo! They sell.... yes you guessed it - frozen yogurt, yo!  Also included a photo of Alpen in a normal person chair for fun.