Scent of Christmas

A busy week and one that has been strangely devoid of medical complications.  Our fighter, Fabian is resurgent in remission and has regained much of his energy, appetite and mischief.  He’s even able to have home tutor visits during this time.  We’re generally keeping him indoors and away from public areas due to the proliferation of coughs and colds at this time of year.  The most dire thing to happen right now would be an infection that could delay transplant – Day Zero.  Now let me tell you more about Day Zero.  I make an analogy with Ground Zero;  (1) his bone marrow (the Twin Towers) having been attacked by leukemia (terrorism) needs to be totally destroyed by a powerful dose of chemo and total body irradiation. (2) Stem cells donated by his sister generate an entirely new bone marrow (the Freedom Tower)  which grows in its place, healthier and stronger.  Furthermore, this has an ‘anti-leukaemic’ effect for the rest of Fabian’s life although the flip side to this advantage is the new immunity may well also treat his healthy cells as foreign and cause the so-called graft versus host disease…for the rest of his life.  It’s as simple as that, well not quite.  Having spent another couple of hours this week with the transplant team going over the finer detail, we now have all the facts and fully acknowledge this is his best chance of healing.  People ask us about the cure rates for allogenaic (sibling match) transplant.  Despite working with data in my day job, I steer clear of studying the morbidity stats but suffice to say, if this was an investment choice it would make the euro look secure and the health warnings would not be out of place on a cigarette pack.   But our faith, though shaken, remains firm and Fabian’s spirit is testament to God’s Hand on his life.  So we have signed the consent form and now have one further week at home before his admission next Friday.  The tree is up and the Christmas cake baked; the scent of cinnamon evokes the festive season, until Ben’s prolific use of deodorant snuffs it out. Teenagers!