It has been a busy couple of months in the Greeff household! The three boys were busy with exams, wrestling, drama, tennis and gala events. We have been so blessed in terms of Stefan's health over this period. 

Apart from the normal winter niggles with runny noses, colds and flu Stefan is doing very well. A month ago he was feeling light-headed and tired and we decided to take him for an unscheduled blood test. His platelet count was above 20 which was very good news. His blood cell counts were lower than what was recorded on the previous test which explained the pale look in his face and the dizzyness that he was experiencing.

The oncologist was not too concerned and he received some antibiotics to help him recover from his bout of the flu.

Stefan was selected to be a lead character in his school's drama team called the "Swarnallies". They have performed on several occasions and have been selected to compete in the upcoming Tshwane Arts Festival. We are so proud of him and he loves being on the stage.

Stefan cannot participate in any contact sport and he was getting very frustrated with the fact that his two brothers are both wrestlers. He still wanted to be involved in wrestling and found himself a job in the wrestling tuckshop while his brothers train on the mat. Now he is part of the "team" and he loves being involved there.

Stefan will undergo another bone marrow aspiration on Tuesday 30, June. This is a terrible procedure but it is critical in terms of establishing a timeframe for his bone marrow transplant. We will have another post next week to report back on how the procedure went, but the results take some time.

While we are at the hospital next week we will visit a friend which will be receiving a transplant in the next month. Tiaan is currently in isolation and he is in our thoughts and prayers. We wish him all the best.

Thank you for all your support over the last year.

The Greeff family

It was time to get some feedback on the donor search and the latest set of blood results.

Below is a picture that I took of the new results. His red cell count was 2.46 which is half of normal levels but very similar to the test in Deccember, which was good news. His white cell count was 3.86 and as you can see normal levels are beteen 5 and 13. This was lower than the December and October results which was a bit concerning. The doctor explained that it is not that bad and within managable levels.

The big one for us is the platelet count because that is where the bone marrow issue lies. His count was 22 this time round. In December it was 27 and in October it was 19. It is sad that it went down from December but the fact that it is above 20 and above the 19 level of October was good. Remember that the bone marrow search was initiated because the count dropped below 20 which is very dangerous. Considering that normal levels are between 137 and 373 tells you how low his counts are.

Based on these results the doctor is comfortable that we can wait for the next bone marrow aspiration before performing individual HLA tests on our potential donors. This aspiration is scheduled for May and for now we will do blood tests in between to monitor the situation.

 At least Stefan is in good spirit and enjoying life. We are proud of our little man, he can teach us all about living life to the fullest...

Stefan's last blood test was in December 2014 before the holidays. These results were better than the results of the test performed in October. It gave us some piece of mind before going on holiday, knowing that he was feeling well under the circumstances and that we would not require any transfusion during this period.

Today was the first blood test for 2015 after almost two months. He was looking a bit pale the last week and it will be interesting to find out what the results will come back with. Watch out for the next article which will be his follow up visit at his doctor to view the results...

Stefan went to see the oncologist today. His blood results were stable and in the acceptable range and we are so grateful for this. We also received an update on the bone marrow search. There are three local and several candidates from Germany. All these donors matched the initial HLA markers. The local candidates are all female. Our oncologist explained to us that the success of the transplant is increased if the donor is in the young and the same gender as Stefan. This implies that all the local donors will not be suitable.

At least there are several candidates from Germany that closely meets this criteria. The next step would be to take a blood sample from the donor and perform more extensive tests to see how closely the HLA markers match. Unfortunately each test carries a cost, and this is the reason why only one donor is tested at a time. Each test takes six to eight weeks to complete.

It now becomes a waiting game for us. Hopefully we will have another update in January. We can be very thankful that Stefan's condition is stable at present and that we have time on our side. We pray that it stays this way until we can find the match we are looking for.

Thank you all for your support over this time, we appreciate it.