Week 2 here has been a roller coaster of emotions.

On Monday we had a surprise meeting with Luke’s doctor that revealed both good information and a change of plans. The good news first:

Luke is in Remission!!!!

This was good to hear, but with ALL, there are two types of tests that need to be done. A patient is considered to be in remission if they have less than 5% leukemia cells in their bone marrow. Luke meets this criteria. They also do a test to look for residual disease (called a minimal residual disease test – or MRD). This looks for any remaining evidence of disease below that 5% mark. Unfortunately Luke was found to be MRD positive (meaning there is still some residual evidence of leukemia cells in his bone marrow).

We have had some time to process what all of this means. Ultimately, Luke will end up needing a stem cell transplant. Until we fully know more, I will leave it at that. For now, we are taking everything one step at a time.

Luke is officially done with his two weeks of intensive CNS prevention treatment!! Hooray!! He had his last dose of radiation yesterday as well as his last lumbar puncture for a while (he even got to keep his radiation mask – pictured below). Now he gets a week to really rest and let his body recover from all of these treatments. Through the last two weeks he has done wonderfully. While he is often tired, he is still in good spirits and has more good days than bad.

I am so incredibly proud of this man and his strength. (Also he makes some amazing banana chocolate chip walnut muffins)