Day 3 at Primary Children's Hospital

Family & Friends

We just got out of a meeting with Tucker's Oncologist Dr. Afifie. Now just to keep you all updated; Dr. Afifie has been Tucker's doc from the start when he was first diagnosed back in 2005, and she will continue to handle his care.

Here is what we found out:
We had initially been told that it was most likely a different type of cancer due to the way it manifested itself but we have confirmed that it is leukemia. Tucker is having what is known as a late leukemia relapse, in his case a VERY late relapse since he's been "in remission" since 2005.
Most kids if they are going to relapse would typically do so in that first year after chemo was completed. The fact that Tucker has waited this long to relapse is actually good news! This means he has not built up an immunity to his past chemo. All of the chemo's he received before will be the exact same chemo's that he'll get now just in higher dosages mixed with steroids and radiation. So the fact that the dates are very far apart works in our favor, and gives us a better "success" edge. Today he will be having a bone marrow biopsy and they will be inserting a Broviak line (this is the line by which they will administer the different chemo's over the next 2 years). The Broviak line is on the outside of the body as opposed to a port-o-cath that placed under the skin.

The plan is start chemo therapy immediately and to treat this very aggressively. The next year will have us spending alot of time at Primary Children's Hospital. Dr. Afifie is trying to get Tucker in a trial program for an experimental antibody that kills the cancer cells without harming his normal cells. We are hoping to get accepted into this as it can only help his recovery. We don't know if Tucker will need a bone-marrow transplant until later, the biopsy today will help determine if there are cancer cells in the bone marrow of if it is isolated to his spinal fluid.

Those of you who want to visit Tucker at the hospital are welcome, just be aware that they will not allow anybody who is sick or children under 14 to visit and only 2 visitors at a time.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We will continue to update our blog and keep you informed as we find out more.

Email from Amber