I can't believe how many people have liked and commented on my picture of Cael. Thank you to Adam's Uncle Joe for taking that picture. And thank you to everyone who has started reading my blog! I can't believe how many new people are reading this! I appreciate each and every one of you so much.
If this is your first time reading this, I'd like to welcome you and clarify one major thing. Cael does NOT have CANCER. He has SCID, which stands for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency. It is a hereditary, genetic condition in which he was born without T cells. Those T cells are a major part of the immune system that controls his ability to fight infection. It is not something that can be cured by any method other than a stem cell transplant. To get that transplant, they must give him chemotherapy to wipe out his existing immune system. The reason they need to wipe out his immune system is to reduce the risk of Graft vs Host Disease (GvHD), which is one of the leading risks with a transplant. GvHD is when the new donor cells recognize his body as foreign, then attack his cells. So the less cells he has, the less risk of GvHD.
To understand more about what Cael has, and the process that has gotten him to the chemotherapy stage, please continue reading my blog. It details all the things that have happened from the time he was diagnosed with SCID until now.
Happy Reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment