Biopsy Results

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to let everyone know that Julia's biopsy showed improvement. The doctor called it a "healing" biopsy. Rejection is rated 0-3 and Julia's previous biopsy (2 weeks ago), was a high end level 2 rejection which was considered multi focal. This most recent biopsy was a level 1 - which is what we wanted and needed. A 0 rated biopsy meaning no rejection would have been nice but not expected. Since it seems like the rejection is under control we will continue with the Oncology side of things and hopefully we will catch a break and have smooth sailing until the next cycle (which will start around the end of April). The heart transplant team discussed doing a follow up biopsy in 4-6 weeks but nothing has been confirmed yet. For now we will continue with weekly echo's and will be monitoring her closely. These results have provided a sense of relief for now and maybe after 3 weeks of worrying and sleepless nights I can finally get some much needed sleep.

Julia will get a break from chemo for a few days and get one last chemo on Friday to finish cycle 3. Then we will wait a couple of weeks for count recovery which will conclude the "Induction" stage. She will then have all her testing and scanning at the end of next week to determine how well the chemo worked. She is expected, actually she must be, disease free in order to move on to the "Consolidation" stage (cycles 4&5). So as you can see we will only get just over a week to relax a little before undergoing all the scans and of course waiting for results. If you remember after the 1st cycle "Reduction" Julia showed a 20% reduction in disease, but the cancer was still there. She has not been scanned since then and with the unexpected episode of rejection and the need for strong immunosuppression to save the heart I am very nervous to see what these scans will show. Please pray that Julia's scans will show NO DISEASE, and we will progress to the next and final stage of treatment. If all goes well and we stay on schedule we should be home by end of June beginning of July.

I will keep you posted on Julia's progress as I can.

Thanks
Nadia