Lucas Chronicles: Consolidation

Most of you already know that we found out this morning that Lucas is officially in remission!!!  This last month has been hell on him, but the chemo has done it's job!!!!!  Many of you have asked for the "road map" to his treatment so that it may make it easier to understand what we are living with everyday.  Below are the papers that we follow.  I will try to explain as I go:

The above sheet describes where we began to where we are going (Diagnosis to Induction to Consolidation).  Because the MRD (minimum residual disease) is less than .01% we can begin the Consolidation phase on Tuesday of next week.  This will require an inpatient visit for 6-7 days.  During this time the following chemotherapy will be administered:

ETOPOSIDE, IFOSFAMIDE, AND MESNA (this will be used to protect his bladder and kidney from the chemo.)

Above is the road map for the first 21 days of Consolidation.  When we go home, we will administer Filgrastim or G-CSF through his PICC line.  This will happen daily for the next 15 days once we leave the hospital.  Along with all of this he will still be taking the Dasatinib that he has been on for the last 3 weeks. This gets us to the next phase of Consolidation.

I hope this helps explain the next 6 weeks for now.  IF you have questions, please be sure to ask.  I'm trying to educate myself every day about this disease and what's going on.