Addison Update

We had a nice relaxing weekend in Vero which was much needed after last week. We all had a great time at Grandaddy and Grandma Brown's 60th wedding anniversary party. Addison especially loved playing with the other children there. It was good to see her socialize since she hasn't had much of that in the past few months. I will post pictures later of our cutie!

We met with our Dr yesterday. Of course I was nervous as usual before we get a CBC. Her counts were as follows:
WBC 3.91
Neutraphils 1.59 (normal for her age is 1.2-9.0)
HGB 10.3
platelets 33

The Dr said the neutraphil count could be elevated due to the stress of the biopsy and the anesthesia. She said to expect it to drop back down to around 800 where it had been holding steady by next week. Or better said: don't be alarmed if it does.

The double biopsy results came back. Keep in mind in June the left side biopsy was at 10-15% cellularity. This time it was 15-20%, not a huge improvement but still an improvement. The right side came back at 50-60%! These numbers made more sense since we knew Addison was making blood somewhere, we just couldn't figure out where. The flow cytometry confirmed no leukemia but the Dr said she couldn't guarantee it wouldn't turn into it. We all knew that since aplastic anemia can be a pre-cursor for other illnesses. The biopsy did not reveal many megakaryocytes which are responsible for making platelets...this explains why the low number of platelets. They are the last thing to respond when the bone marrow is trying to heal. She did have many immature white cells which is what appeared to be blasts under the microscope to the pathalogist. Her red blood counts are normal but they were slightly abnormal in shape/size under the microscope. This could be normal in bone marrow that is working in overdrive. We will know for sure when the cytogenetics come back next week. The doctors all agree that we need to give Addison an additional 3 months to watch and wait to see if she continues to heal herself then repeat a double biopsy (this will mean minimum of 7 biopsys for our angel). Patience is a virtue...so I am told.