8/02 - Caution: Dip Ahead

Peter had his bi-weekly blood draw today and his platelet count is now 86,000.  We would have been ecstatic about that in the hospital, but just two weeks ago, his count had been at 229,000.  The falling platelet counts suggest that, despite our hopes, Peter is not in remission.  Boo.

Now, we weren't entirely unprepared for this possibility.  We knew that there was a strong chance his high platelet counts were a result of the steroid treatment, which he finished a month ago. The most likely scenario was that the steroids would temporarily suppress his immune response, but that eventually the steroids would wear off and his counts would fall.  The new medication he is on takes 1-3 months to take effect, so the doctors had prepared us for the possibility that his counts would go up for a few weeks, gradually fall as the steroids wore off and then (hopefully) come back up as the 6MP started to take effect.

Of course, being realistic didn't keep us from being hopeful. Seeing his counts go up week after week made us hope that Peter was just getting better - that things would be rosy from here on out.  Unfortunately, it appears we're not there.  At least not yet.

For now, Peter's platelet counts aren't alarmingly low, the rest of his blood counts are still good and he remains happy and content. Given what he's been through, this is something to be grateful for. For the next couple of weeks, we'll be watching Peter a little more anxiously obviously - looking for symptoms that his counts have fallen into the danger zone that would require another hospital visit, praying that his counts will stay in the safe range until the 6MP (or any miraculous cure that comes along) can get his counts up....

In the meantime, we still have Hope.