Hi all – As discussed yesterday, the first cycle of chemo put Sally into remission, and many have asked what this means. It does not mean Sally is cured and stops or changes her treatment. First off, the plan for Sally’s treatment of chemo over two years remains unchanged. Remission at this stage was anticipated by doctors assuming the treatment had worked, which it has to this point. Had it not, well, it wouldn’t be good. The fact that it worked, and Dr. Steinherz left me a message saying her marrow looks “excellent”, improves Sally’s odds of getting through this. However, she still has to go through the long and painful process of aggressive chemotherapy treatment that will hopefully continue to be successful.

If Sally was older, odds are that her body would react well to chemo for the next two years and the cancer would likely be gone for good. Sadly, we don’t have this luxury, Sally’s diagnosis as an infant with ALL/MLL puts her in the high risk category for treatment failure. Essentially, every time Sally gets a bone marrow biopsy for the next two years, Nicole and I will be holding our breath waiting to see if the cancer is still gone.

Even if Sally hopefully gets through the planned 2 years of chemo as expected, the next several months will be hard on her body. The analogy I’ve been using today is that Sally has achieved getting to base camp up on Mt. Everest, the high point which climbers have to get to before going for the summit, known as the hardest part of the climb. Sally is up there at base camp having achieved remission, but still has that tough climb up the mountain to full recovery, and is going to be difficult with plenty of good days and bad days.

Nicole and I are relieved the treatment has worked so far, but being parents who had to go through being told their baby has Leukemia not once, but twice, we take this news with a very cautious optimism. We know the odds. We know infant Leukemia is unpredictable and can change in a heartbeat. But we also know our Sally is tough as nails and can pull through this, so are going to stay positive and keep marching forward. She certainly is, having handled her second day of intense treatment great today and is in high spirits.  We admire her strength and follow her lead.

I realized that our comments section was down and is now fixed, and finally got to read many of your posts from the last two days. We want to thank you all for your support of Sally an our family, every comment means the world to us. Please keep our Sally  in your thoughts and prayers.

Matt