change of plans and another question

From: Becca- rwalker@geo.arizona.edu
Date: 12/12/2003
Time: 10:38:52 PM
Remote Name: 172.130.193.202

Comments

First, big congratulations to Larry for making it through another biopsy and to Andrew for his great cell counts!

My last post involved ATG because until today, I was under the impression that I was starting it this coming week. However...today my doctors decided to hold off on the ATG until we find out if my brother is a match. I suspect that the change of plans stems from the results of my latest biopsy, which reveals less than 5% cellularity (30% cellularity on October 29th.) Despite this percentage, my white count today was 3.4 with great neutrophils (last Neulasta shot was last Friday), and my hemoglobin was 11.6 (Procrit last Friday; 9.1 Monday and transfusion; 11 Tuesday, 11.7 Wednesday, 11.6 today.)

I'm still anti-transplant at this point--I feel like even though I have so few cells in my marrow, the little suckers must be tough if I can maintain reasonable white counts and hemoglobin. Why kill them and replace them with a transplant when maybe they're strong enough to bounce back after immune therapy?

Maybe my logic is warped, so now for my question: I'm wondering what your bone marrow biopsies revealed in terms of cellularity. In other words, is my marrow maybe too empty to benefit from immune therapy? Any ideas?

Thanks for the input!