The best kind of test to fail

Peter had another doctor's appointment this week, so time to update the blog ...  Since our last post, Peter has continued to do well on his medication, and he has shown no side effects.  Hence, this appointment felt more like a check up ... well, except for the blood draw.  Peter's getting old enough that when they put the tourniquet on his arm, he knew right away what was coming, and he was not happy camper. But as soon as the blood was taken, he bounced right back like a champ.

When the results came back, all his counts were still normal which is awesome.  But even more promising is the fact that he failed the direct antiglobulin test (aka the Coombs test).  Every once in a while, they have been testing his blood to see if his red blood cells are being attacked by his antibodies.  Every time they have tested so far, he has come back positive, indicating that he still has active Evans, but that the medicine is just keeping the antibodies at bay.  However, this time, he came back negative, indicating the immune response to his red blood cells has turned off.  Thus, for a negative test result, this is a very positive outcome. It significantly increases the probability that Peter will continue in remission once we wean him off the medication.  We are very excited. :-)

Together with the doctor, we've started planning the schedule for weaning him off the medication.  The process will take about eight weeks. The plan right now is to start weaning him sometime in January or February so that he is off the medication shortly after his first birthday. We'll keep you posted about how that goes, but in the mean time please join us in celebrating failure!