A mixed bag

The news from Leicester was largely good. Vicki is in remission, her blood is clear of Leukaemia. It's important to stress that she's not cured, yet. However Dr Madi said that the chances of a cure are very good. Personally I am a percentage man, but he wouldn't be drawn into figures. OK, I'll accept very good.

A minor niggle that has come out of this is that as a result of volume of blood transfusions that Vicki received, she now has too much iron in her blood. Essentially the way to deal with this is take blood from her. Over the next 6 months, about once a month she'll need about 250ml of blood removed, then the excess iron in her body will be used up making fresh blood. I guess that's what you call payback time. Ah well, easy come, easy go!

Part of the detailed tests that have been done on Vicki include a detailed DNA test. This has revealed that unrelated to the Leukaemia she has a Gene Translocation. I'll spare you the technical explanation (you all have Google) but it means that Vicki, along with her brother, me and her mum, will have to go to see a genetics specialist to discuss what this means in practical terms. To be frank, I've no idea, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The irony of course is that without the Leukaemia we would be none the wiser about this, and living in blissful ignorance, so we're parking this issue as we've no idea what it really means. There is a high possibility that it means nothing, so we'll try not to dwell on this.

Vicki will also have to have a heart scan. This is because the Chemotherapy can affect the heart muscle. She'll also have to go back once a month for a year for regular check ups.

I will of course keep the blog up to date once tests, diagnostics, or any other significant events occur, so as ever, please keep reading.