Day 320 - Good and bad

First the good... Ryan's ANC and liver numbers are looking great.  We've been giving him GCSF to bring his ANC numbers up, and he was up in the 3000's today, which is really good.  His liver is recovering and he's feeling pretty good.

Now the bad... Since his ANC was up high, we decided it was a good day to do his repeat CT scan, to see how his lungs were looking.   A few weeks ago, at his last CT, we found two dark spots in his lungs, that we thought might be a fungal infections.  As a result, we started him on an anti-fungal medication to kill off any infection.  (side note, this anti-fungal may have caused the problems with the liver, but we have since stopped using it).  The spot on the right side seems to be completely gone, which is a good sign that the anti-fungal did it's job... However, the spot on the left side has increased in size about 3 times.  That's not good.  The doctors believe they know what kind of fungal infection would look like this, and we are starting him on a fairly nasty anti-fungal medication to get it under control.

This type of fungal infection in the lungs fortunately (at this stage) does not cause much in the way of obvious symptoms.  He does not have any trouble breathing and without the CT scan, we wouldn't have even known about it.  The treatment will probably include a couple of months of this anti-fungal medication, which kind of sucks.

Throughout this leukemia treatment, we have been very aware of the possibility of a fungal infection.  Since his immune system is so compromised, especially with this latest round which dropped his counts to 0, we are not exactly surprised at this latest development.  That being said, I am grateful that the doctors are keeping on top of it, and we have a treatment plan.  I'm not exactly sure how this will affect the continuation of treatment, but we had intended to pause anymore chemo until his liver recovers anyway.

Our primary oncologist is away at a conference today, but when she returns later this week, we will have a discussion on this latest issue and how it alters our plans.  I'm just staying positive that we will weather this issue, as we do, and I'm grateful that he's still feeling good.

Thank you all for the continued prayers and good thoughts.