Slowly but Surely

It's hard to believe that it has been nearly a month since the last time I posted on Brendan's Journey. We met with Brendan's oncologist on Friday and found out that there are two potential bone marrow donors for Brendan. We also had the results that Brendan does not have either of the two chromosomal abnormalities that have a bad prognosis.

As far as to when and where, it is still a mystery. Brendan's doctor is going to contact Sydney and find out about availability of beds etc. Our first choice is the Sydney Children's hospital at Randwick and our second is Westmead Children's hospital. Given that Christmas is approaching and Brendan's time in hospital will be between 2 and 4 months and that his disease is currently stable, there is a possibility that the transplant will not happen until the new year. In that time the Adelaide Children's hospital may have become accredited to receive transorted bone marroiqw from the bone marrow register thus enabling it to perform non family member marrow transplants. If this happens before it is time for Brendan to have his procedure it would mean that we can stay in Adelaide. As you can all imagine we are all anxious to get news and make plans.

Brendan is doing well on his medication and has not had a fever for 3 weeks. As the medication (prednisolone) has nasty side effects, we are trying to reduce his dosage and find a happy balance between the two. He has a lot more energy and is more the typical little boy who wants to get out and about and do things.

Brendan's Immunologist has contacted a Immunologist in Canada as there is still the thought that Brendan has two illnesses. One being the MDS and the other possibly being ALPS or Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/publications/alps/default.htm

The hospital in Canada will genetically test Brendan for ALPS. (The doctor in Canada is writing a paper on a child who he recently treated for MDS and ALPS).

The doctors are still unsure as to why Brendan has MDS or his fevers. This is one of the reasons why things are taking so long.

We should know more in the next 2 weeks. We will keep you posted.

Cheers from Brendan, Anna, Richard, Tara and Kieran.