SIMON'S PLACE | Transplant

As we noted on the WHAT'S HAPPENING page, Simon was "sent home" to get a little more well from his cold when he was looked over by Dr. Yanik. We had a little room to delay, based on keeping the day of the actual transplant on a weekday. Dr. Yanik prefered to see Simon enter the chemo/transplant/recovery process as healthily as possible.

The rest of our Monday at home was like a bonus gift. Simon ran around with the neighborhood kids. Miriam and Simon goofed off gloriously together in the evening. It helped us realize how much we like being at home together.

GLOSSARY

BLOOD COUNTS
WBC (white blood cells; infection-fighters) normal range: 4.5-13.5 K/MM3
Hemoglobin (carries oxygen in blood, low=anemic) normal range: 12.5-16.0 g/dl
Hematocrit (not totally sure, but related to red blood cells) normal range: 36.0-49.0%
Platelets (blood clotters; low means risk of internal/external bleeding) normal range: 150-450 K/MM3
ANC (absolute neutrophil count; basic measure of immune system) normal range: 1.8-10.1 K/MM3

GLUTAMINE an aminio acid that can reduce mouth sores after intensive chemotherapy. Not commonly used at UM Hospitals, but hightly recommended by other parents in our Neuroblastoma listserv community. Dr. Yanik said it would be OK to try it and ordered it for Simon.

MYEOLOABLATIVE destroying of bone marrow. Pre-transplant chemotherapy is designed to kill off all bone marrow in the body. The transplant introduces new cells to create new marrow.

NEUPOGEN white blood cell production stimulating agent; injected subcutaneously while WBC is low.

TRANSPLANT

GLOSSARY