My bone marrow is squeaky clean

7/8/2017

Saturday, July 8th, 2017
Richmond, Virginia

Good news

The very good news for today is that my bone marrow results were returned earlier than expected and my bone marrow is disease-free!

Laura (the nurse practitioner at Johns Hopkins) called me at 8am today but I didn't answer the call because my phone said that the inbound number was "Unknown." She called again five more times in the following hour, all of which I ignored for the same reason. Around 10:15am, I realized that one of those calls had left a voicemail message telling me that (A) it was Laura, (B) that she had bone marrow results to deliver to me and (C) please call her back. But, I couldn't -- the number was still "Unknown!"

Soon thereafter, Laura called me again and this time I knew to answer. She immediately gave me the good news: although the R/ICE regimen hadn't put much of a dent in my diseased spleen, it had eliminated the disease in my bone marrow.

The Plan

As of now, the plan is to first tackle the problematic spleen with radiotherapy, then proceed with the bone marrow transplant process. They've picked a tentative date for the transplant itself: Friday, August 18th. I think that conflicts with a dentist appointment of mine, but I suspect that I can defer the latter.

In other news...

A lot more actually happened this week:

My mom and niece spent the week at Grandparent/Grandchild Summer Camp in Maine.
We spent last weekend with Cam, Nancy and her parents in Alexandria, Virginia. Nancy and I continued our domination of the family euchre wars.
We celebrated July 4th (our 14th wedding anniversary) with my dad and step-mom. We spent the afternoon at the hard-to-describe-but-insanely-interesting American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood.
Our friends and family gave us a gift of an elaborate set of Tibetan prayer flags.

16 Comments

Adele Karp

7/8/2017 02:45:55 pm

So wonderful! Sending lots of love. Adele and the Karp Family

Trish O'Connor link

7/8/2017 05:22:14 pm

Such wonderful news! Let's hope the addition of radiotherapy kicks the lingering stuff in the spleen to the curb.

Candy

7/8/2017 05:31:24 pm

Thank you for sharing the good news! I have younin my thoughts and prayers while waiting for the news. So happy for the positive news!! ❤️

Ronda Ingersoll

7/8/2017 06:09:50 pm

'Twas a good week!

Gaye Johnson

7/8/2017 06:26:17 pm

We are so happy to hear this news! Michael said he's happy to mow your "Lexington lawn" until you can return, but he's not weeding your flower beds. :-)

Linda Bugbee

7/8/2017 06:46:23 pm

Fabulous news! Woohoo!

Nancy and Wayne Chasen

7/8/2017 07:03:40 pm

Thoughts sent heavenward.

Mom

7/8/2017 07:07:36 pm

Extraordinary news - thank you ALISON for the extraordinary care you take of Josh ❤️❤️

Ruth Ann Scott

7/8/2017 07:27:58 pm

Woo hoo! Incredible news Josh. We are so happy and I understand that my daughter got the news as Alison did. She said it was a very exciting time!

J&R

7/8/2017 08:26:53 pm

Praise God! Robert and I are so overjoyed for you, Josh and Alison! May you continue to feel God's grace and healing in the coming weeks, and know we are praying for you! J&R

Dolly Shumate

7/8/2017 10:05:18 pm

What great news!!!! We will continue with prayers ❤️

Bev Bley

7/8/2017 10:41:06 pm

Yea!!! Bone marrow--good stuff.

Suzanne

7/9/2017 11:41:35 am

Fantastic update!

Stacey

7/10/2017 08:40:47 am

Yay!! So happy to hear this news.

Carla

7/10/2017 07:12:48 pm

So glad to hear this good news!

Cheryl Bailey

7/11/2017 03:10:19 pm

Great to hear of the plan, Josh. Thanks for the lovely photos and updates on all the fun visiting you have been doing. Loved the museum photos as well. Sending lots of love and hugs!