Near complete remission

So Dad got great news this week. His counts are so low that they consider him to be in near complete remission. Complete remission would have been if his counts were zero, but they are 0.5 right now. He was absolutely thrilled, as were the rest of us. Now he needs to stay on maintenance therapy, the pill form of therapy he has been taking. The bone marrow specialist doesn't want to see him for another 9 months. Dr. Kazhdan will be following with him, though not as frequently as before. He also met with the back specialist, who looked at the most recent studies of dad's back. His back bone has healed nicely on its own and he won't need to have surgery or resin placed in his bones to strengthen them. He also has been signed off by the pain specialist as well. Everything is going great! We are all so thankful for the prayers and thoughts that all of you have extended towards Dad. He is such a strong man, but was made even stronger by all of your thoughts and prayers.

No news is good news

So Dad as recovered nicely from the stem cell transplant. He had some time where is appetite wasn't great, but that is back and so is his strength. He has spent the last 2 months at work and doing physical therapy. At this point he is on maintenance chemotherapy just in case the stem cell transplant didn't do what we hoped. In late August they will repeat his labs to see if he is in remission. In the meantime, he has met with the back surgeon, who doesn't recommend fixing the fractured vertebrae quite yet. We are waiting for his bones to get stronger before they go that route. His ticker is doing fantastic! Just waiting for his hair to slowly grow back. He shaved it when he was in the hospital, and now he has fuzz growing. Thanks so much for the support.....we posted new pictures, one before the transplant and the pictures from the Canthera 1 yr birthday celebration party with his oncologist.