Dear Friends,
We wanted to share our good news with you. No, great news! Actually, the best news ever!!
We woke up early today and made our weekly trek to Cedars for our visit with Dr. Lopez, and here’s what Dr. Lopez said to us when she came into the room and sat down: “It doesn’t get any better than this!” And then she said, “You couldn’t possibly be doing any better than this.” First we said, “Can you please say that again.” Then we said, “Did you say, it doesn’t get any better than this?!” And then we all jumped up and had a big, long group hug, along with a few tears of joy! After we all sat down, Dr. Lopez added this amazing nugget: She said, “We’ve never seen this before. We’ve seen 99.6 and 99.4 and 99.9, but never 100%!”
Last week we were told that Dave’s latest chimerism blood test showed that his bone marrow is 100% his donor’s. Meaning, his own rotten bone marrow that couldn’t fight the leukemia is completely gone! Gone! This was such great news, and it was even the talk of their medical team of doctors and nurses. They don’t ever see a 100% result! And then today, we received the results from last week’s bone marrow biopsy during our visit with Dr. Lopez. It was such good news. The bone marrow biopsy confirmed that his marrow is 100% new from his donor, brother Paul. What an amazing confirmation. The biopsy also showed that there are NO LEUKEMIA CELLS in Dave’s marrow or blood or anywhere!!
Wow! We are so thrilled, and we wanted to share this wonderful news with you as soon as we could. God has certainly done a great thing. Dave’s diagnosis last November of the most aggressive form of leukemia that you can possibly have was such a scary thing to face. The process to bring us to this day has been full of excruciating pain and complications, overwhelming uncertainty and sadness… and yet it has also been full of God’s peace and assurance, as well as the love and kindness and prayers of thousands of people. The miracle we now see is the result of God’s great hand working through the marvel of modern medicine, the loving and skillful care of the our wonderful doctors and nurses, all coupled with His incredibly miraculous healing power.
“Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone works wonders.” Psalm 72:18
Thank you for all of your prayers and for your loving support and encouragement along the way in these past nine months. As Dave slowly gains back his physical strength, we continue to be very watchful and careful and yet incredibly hopeful.
With love and appreciation,
Dave and Carol