Not quite a good end to an OK day....

Trish and I continued plodding through our day of BMT pre-eval tests today. Her blood counts were still low (they dropped a little), but no bottle of reds needed and they delayed the bottle of whites (platlets) opting to give them to her tomorrow before her Lumbar Punture.

We finished up our day in a bone marrow transplant class taught by one of the nurses we knew from 5A. My phone rang during this class and it was Carolyn Coleman - our BMT case manager....than the day turned down...

Carolyn had given the insurance company the last bone marrow biopsy report and they said they wanted another one. The report does show that Trish is in remission which is defined as less than 5% blasts (click on the BMT link earlier in this article for more details on this definition and bone marrow transplants), but the report ended with ....."the marrow is consistent with recovering marrow and we can not rule out the return of Leukemia" -- Poor choice of words to end this pathology report with for us. You see, the insurance company will only approve the transplant if she is in remission -- which Hopkins says her initial report shows. Short of getting the insurance company to agree that she is in remission.....we are up the creek wihout a paddle. The only other way to get a transplant is to come up with a half million dollars cash.....

Trish will now get a BM Biopsy tomorrow in addiion to the lumbar puncture. I am not sure when or if we will get home before her transplant -- if we can even get the insurance company to approve the transplant. This sounds doom and gloom and well, it might be. We can only take it one day at a time and hope for the best. If Trish is determined to not be in remission, she will need to undergo additional chemo to try and place her back into remission, before we can proceed with the transplant. One of the reasons the doctors were so happy that she was in remission was that they know that second and successive remissions can be short....now it ma be delayed longer.....

I'll keep everyone posted, I think the only thing that could cheer Trish up now would be a trip home to be with her boys and a confirmed transplant date.