One More Month

We just got back from the doctor and now have a plan for transplant.  Logan's doctor would like to do one more month of this new drug to hopefully get him into remission before transplant.  We are planning on Logan being admitted sometime the week of February 6th.  We are also going to go a different route for transplant than previously planned.  Logan's doctor has heard wonderful things about a new treatment approach that has yielded great results in trial patients with his type of relapsed AML.  It is a haploidentical  stem cell transplant.  Haplo meaning that only half of Logan's HLA (human leukocyte antigen) proteins will be a match as the donation will come from one of his parents.  Eric and I both were tested to determine which one would be the best match for Logan and they have determined that Eric is the best candidate to donate stem cells for Logan's transplant.  While Logan is undergoing the pre-conditioning chemo regimen to prepare his body for transplant, Eric will be taking G-CSF injections (granulocyte colony stimulating factor)  to generate excess peripheral stem cells that they can harvest the day before Logan's transplant.  This will allow them to collect Eric's stem cells through IV and filter the stem cells out giving Eric back the remaining blood (rather than pulling directly from the bone marrow).  They are also planning to collect enough lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) from Eric to give Logan scheduled lymphocyte infusions at day 30, 60 and 90 post transplant.  These lymphocytes will stimulate Logan's new immune system to search and destroy all remaining leukemic cells once and for all.