Luiz health update

While this darn “watch and wait” period drives us crazy, Luiz’s Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia seems to have found a nice and stable path that it has been sticking to for the past 33 months.

Luiz makes the trip to the National Cancer Institute every two months (or as my Brazilian English students would say: “every two and two months”) for a check up. Honestly, the stress of the bus ride over followed by sitting in a stuffy smelling, overcrowded, public cancer facility waiting room with patients in all stages of their disease – is sure to be worse than just a phone consult if his complete blood count numbers have not changed in any real way. It’s always good to get a physical exam, for sure, to check for swelling of the lymph nodes, but perhaps that could be every four months.

But hey, I’m just the guy who wants to spare Luiz the hassle and discomfort.

[Happy blood]

We’re happy to report that all of his indicators remain stable and any change is within the margin of error. His platelet count went up again this time. My favorite.

I never get tired of reporting that his disease indicators are nearly identical to his time of diagnosis.

[Blood, like Luiz's, struggling to stay happy]

Thank you everyone for you support and words of encouragement to the both of us.