For a long time, Maggie’s platelets have been dropping every day, requiring daily replacement. A few days ago, we reported that we skipped a few days without platelets because the rate of decline had slowed. In the last couple of days, however… they went up! The doctors were very excited. Median time to engraftment for platelets is about 60 days, and it’s only been 45, so this is well ahead of schedule. Also, platelets are the last infusion we’ve been going to the hospital for, so there is less pressure to travel to the hospital every day. Her levels over the last few days were: 32, 28, 29, 31, 38 (all without anything added).

To give you a sense of the range, the technical criterion for platelet engraftment is 50+ without any transfusions. The floor for treatment was 20, with infusions given for any score below 30, and a child without a transplant would typically score at least 150.