Jarrod Lyle’s wife provided an optimistic update on the Australian’s third battle with leukemia Tuesday, but she cautioned that a difficult road remains.
Lyle said last week that he’s in remission after his blood counts return to normal levels.
“What has happened since he began chemo has been great and really important,” said Lyle’s wife, Briony, according to the Australian PGA’s website, “but the word ‘remission’ might be a bit misleading in this instance because he’s not ‘cured’ yet.
“Jarrod will return to the hospital at some point in the next week or so for ‘consolidation chemo’ to try to keep things as they are for the moment.”
Briony said that Jarrod, who has already beaten leukemia twice, would require a full bone-marrow transplant “if he’s actually going to be ‘cured.’”
Briony explained that a full bone-marrow transplant reduces a person’s immunity levels to zero, like a newborn, so Jarrod will be at a high risk of infection.
“We are thrilled with all the support everyone has offered us, and their enthusiasm when they see the word ‘remission’ being used, just as we had ourselves,” Briony said. “But I suppose we just wanted people to know that it’s just one step of many he’ll have to take.
“Jarrod is still very ill, at a high risk of infection, and is taking huge amounts of medication daily. The treatment plan going forward and the continued use of chemo will make him even more unwell for a lengthy period of time, before hopefully we can get this stuff out of his body once and for all.”
Source: Internet