Just a quick update to say I haven't gotten any biopsy results yet. Partly because I haven't seen a Dr. or Practitioner yet this week, and partly because it takes a while to get the pathology results completed. The nurses in clinic can't even tell in the system if my results are back. I have been given the day off tomorrow - yeah!! Second "off" day since I was discharged. I will see a Nurse Practitioner on Thursday so maybe I will have some preliminary results at that visit. The two main things they will be looking for are 1) No evidence of Leukemia and 2) My bone marrow chimerism - which will show how much is made up of my brother's cells and how much is my cells that survived chemo. We are praying for 100% donor. Extra credit if you know why they use the word chimerism....
Everything else is going pretty well. My counts are still trending slowly upward and my appetite is improving. No fevers or infections..... I will post again once I have some updates from the biopsy.
Congrats to Brant and the kids for surviving the first day of school....it was a busy one. We had a little help from Ruth and friends, too! Thanks!
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Well yes, in the old days this sort of question would have rated extra credit...but in the age of Wikipedia...we know that chimerism is the phenomenon of an individual carrying cells with different DNA. This is generally "not good" for a variety of reasons, so we're hoping that George's cells have comfortably merged with your own rather than staking out an independent life for themselves. Close enough? (I was skimming, naturally) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28genetics%29
xoxox
Well dear brother, we can award some partial credit for you Wikipedia answer. But the question was really getting at why they use the word "chimerism". It was more of a word origin exercise....And I did not see that answered on Wikipedia....
Felt challenged since your brother got it wrong...Greek Mythology: In mythology, a chimera is a fire-breathing monster composed with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail.
So it relates to the mixing of chromosomes in the body...
Any closer?
Ding ding ding....we have a winner! You are correct Julie. The word chimerism came from the Greek creature chimera which mixed together different species. We will have to fly to Hawaii to award you your extra credit in person....I am thinking a couple of empty bags of magnesium would be exciting for you!
You don't need to bring magnesium when you come. Just the satisfaction that I am a better Google searcher than your brother is enough :)
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