9:30am Fri 9/9 - 12 hours of chemo

Daniella called me at 9:30am. Stefan is doing well after his first 12 hours of chemo. At 9:30pm last night, he started two chemo drugs, via IV drip. He started the first stage of treatment, which is called induction therapy, where the goal is achieve remission. His initial treatment is often referred to as 7-3 chemo. He will receive daunorubicin via IV, for 15 minutes, once a day for 3 days. He simultaneously receives a second IV drip, which runs around the clock. The 24 hour drip is cytarabine.

He did okay during the night. No negative side effects yet. He had a full dental xray scan this morning, as they need to monitor his teeth, gums and mouth during chemo. After the 7 full days of chemo, there will be a one week waiting period before his blood will be evaluated to see to what extent the leukemia cells were wiped out - to see if he's in remission. 80% of AML patients go into remission after induction therapy. If he stays in remission longer than 2 years, it will be considered that he's beak leukemia, since most relapses occur in the first 24 months of remission.

Okay, enough medical details. Steve and family and I with my little guy are going to head down to NMH in a half hour. We'll stay in the room briefly, but we're all going so we can get Daniella out of the room to make sure she eats lunch. I am hoping to be the one to stay in the room with Stefan when Daniella goes to lunch, so that I can talk with the doctors when they come to check on Stefan. I will post news when we get back from the hospital.

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I'm sorry for those of you who checked in yesterday afternoon, hoping to find an update, which I didn't post till almost 10pm. I initially was not going to stay downtown till evening, but Jon was able to get home early enough to get the girls from school, and he told me to stay down with Stefan for more than just an hour, so I did. I apologize if you were looking for news and didn't get any till late in the day. --SMK