Bone marrow problems
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The Steinhaus Family
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The Steinhaus Family
Vivian and I left this morning for two nights at the beach. We’re trying to salvage a piece of our planned family vacation, but are staying relatively close to home in case we need to go back early. Andrew has plans to be at NYU every other day for labs and platelet transfusions. On Friday, his platelets were at 59; this morning they were back down to 10.
He touched base with his hematologist who wanted to look at his blood under a microscope to rule out blood diseases that would permanently prevent his bone marrow from recovering and making new platelets. These disorders are rare, but with Andrew, that’s not much comfort. She reached out to him this evening with the update that she doesn’t see evidence of those disorders, but the shape of his red blood cells suggests that cancer may have infiltrated the bone marrow.
The next step is to schedule a bone marrow biopsy. If confirmed, the risk/benefit analysis for getting chemo despite very low platelets shifts—even if his platelets are in the 10 range, it’s important to try and sterilize the marrow with chemo. This could significantly raise his risk of bleeding. He’s already been getting a lot of nosebleeds.
Delaying chemo was worrying us outside of the bone marrow issues. He got a CT on Friday that showed progression, which was expected, but there were multiple new areas affected including two new spots in muscles.
Andrew is staying as upbeat as possible, trusting his doctors who we know are giving him their best, and leaning on faith.
Elyse Steinhaus
4 months ago
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