Cooper Harrison Loland Arrived

On August 18th, 9 PM and some change, Cooper arrived, healthy and kicking. The delivery was relatively easy, but of course that is easy for me to say. But definitely easier than both Christian and Alex. He is a little smaller than our previous other two, but length wise the same. He scored 90% in length and 50% in weight. But importantly, from a CML perspective, he is for all we can tell, a perfectly healthy Sprycel baby.

This is significant, in that there are not that many Sprycel babies, since the drug was only approved for usage in 2007 I believe, and the label still states that men (and women) should not have kids while on the drug. But working with my fantastic team at OHSU, this was ok'ed and planned. We never knew if we wanted another child, in fact, some days 2 very active boys seems too much, but once I reached a very stable low level CML (last 4 tests since Oct 10 have been weak positives), we made the decision that life isn't going to be put on hold.

On a different note, I just had my 2 year on Ariad, or Cycle 24 as they call it. Ariad goes by a 28 day month, so it's not a full 2 calender years. It's amazing how time has gone bye, I ran into Nancy, she is one of the nurses in charge at OHSU, and I got to talk to her at some length. She was the first nurse I had down there, the first day. The first day still rings loud and clear in my mind, the fear of taking a compound that hasn't been tested that much on humans, the anxiety of not knowing what it will do to you, an the fear of what it will do to you. Will it work, won't it work, and is all this for not...All history now, but reminds me that this is a life long journey. It was so nice to share what has been happening with Nancy, since she spent the entire first day with me, drawing blood every hour, and listening to my story. Walking through the halls down there, I realize that nurses are either amazing at remembering names, or they actually do take interest in patients. I had 3 nurses call me by my first name, just walking around. When I think back, I have spent a lot of time at OHSU over the past 2 years.

So while no results are back of course yet, other than my CBC's that are on the lower side of normal, I did learn that I am now going to start going to OHSU every 6 months instead of every 3. They still will require a biopsy since my abnormal chromosomes that have shown up in the past year, but if not for that I wouldn't even need a BMB. Maybe one day I will be completely boring, oh, that sounds nice...