Van has CML - Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Doctor Peterson came in today who is the head of the Leukemia Department at LDS Hospital and has just focused on Leukemia for 30+ years. The bone marrow test came back to tell us he has CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) in blast crisis. They are giving him a drug called Dasatinib or the trade name Sprycel which inhibits the growth of CML cell lines. It has a 30-40% chance of working. If it doesn’t work he will need Chemo (the big guns). He is already on the chemo tablet to help bring down the white blood cell count. This drug has a lot of adverse reactions like fluid in the lungs, diarrhea, fluid retention, heart palpitations, etc., a huge list. He may need spinal treatments in the future. As soon as we get the white blood cells under control and not climbing then he will get a bone marrow transplant. But it has a 50/50 chance of working. They said he might be able to come home for a few weeks before the transplant but then he will be out of commission for a year and in the hospital 5-6 weeks, minimum. They tell me to just take this one day at a time because there is a lot of information and a lot to take in and things change every day.
He had a MRI two days ago because they thought the Leukemia was in his brain. But that test came out clean. Yeh!
Van doesn’t feel like eating but after not eating yesterday they were very concerned and gave us both a pep talk about doing everything we can to have him eat because the alternative is awful. So I order things from room service that will be enticing and then do all I can to get him to take a few bites. He is on a low microbial diet. That means the he can’t eat any vegetables unless they are steamed, only fruits that are peeled, etc, and it has to be prepared in a sterile environment. So no Wendy’s Burger’s with cheese they told him. He was pretty sad about that news. After he eats, he has to brush his teeth with a very soft toothbrush so his gums won’t start bleeding. Then he has to swish with some special liquid, suck on a pill and then not eat or drink for 30 minutes. He does this four times a day. This is to protect his mouth the best they can from all the sores, which are 20 times more painful than a canker, which will be forming in his mouth and throat in the near future.
I have to tell you about the first few days of our hospital stay, when he could talk and be awake more than 30 seconds. He would talk to every nurse (which there are a lot we come in contact with) and find out about their background: where they live, how many kids they have, if they like the U or BYU, if they are LDS, etc. One nurse wasn’t LDS and so when the next nurse came in he started talking about this nurse that wasn’t a member and was asking and challenging this nurse to talk to her and see what she could do to help her. He is an amazing missionary!