CML

We have a diagnosis! So the doctors were right and Ian does have Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. There is a certain gene with CML called the Philadelphia Chromosome. This is the one that is defective and causes his body to produce way too many WBCs. They have a medication that is fairly new called Gleevec (Imatinib) that just targets the Philadelphia Chromosome and supresses it. So they started Ian on that pill yesterday. The doctors haven't gotten all of the results back yet, so we don't know what phase of CML Ian is in, but we should know pretty soon. The three phases are chronic, accelerated and blast. Chronic is the one we want. If he's in chronic he'll just have to take the Gleevec and we should be going home within the next week. If he's in one of the other phases he'll still take the Gleevec, but will probably have to do some other treatments as well. The doctors are expecting that he's in the chronic phase though, so hopefully they are right again.

At this hospital they have a menu and Ian gets to order whatever he wants whenever he wants (within reason of course). So he's been okay with the food, especially since he can have chicken strips lots. The only problems are that they are a little slow, so we have to order 30-45 minutes before he wants to eat. Also they have a strange love of parsley garnishes. This morning he ordered a blueberry muffin and when he got it there was a sprig of parsley on top. A few days ago he got pancakes and once again, there was parsley. It doesn't seem so strange with fajitas or pizza, but parsley just doesn't seem to go with a blueberry muffins.

When the nurse came in just now, she accidentally jerked on his central line, which can be painful, though Ian says it wasn't. Anyway, to keep that from happening again she brought him a "necklace". It's just a ball chain with a clip on it to hold his tubes. I just never thought that Ian would be getting jewelry on Valentines day.

Last night when we were praying together, we got a little emotional. Ian had said he was grateful for temples and that we have been sealed together. Its something I'm sure we've said hundreds of times in our prayers, but its a little more meaningful at a time like this. We are both so grateful for the gospel and all of the blessings that we've been promised as long as we do our part. We are also really grateful for our parents and that they taught us the gospel from the time we were little so that we could be sealed in the temple and have that assurance that we can be together forever.