April 14, 2026

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Nothing much to report here other than Ollie is doing well and the doctors are happy with his progress.

He has no signs of liver inflammation and hasn’t had a fever or any other concerning symptoms that would put us in the hospital. Tomorrow will be our first check to see if we can detect the T-cells yet (through a blood draw). The cells will continue to grow and expand between weeks 1 and 2 post-infusion. The growth and expansion of the cells can lead to fevers and inflammation (no one wants to see those things but it does typically mean that the cells are fighting the cancer as they should be). Our team is interested to see what type of response he will have since he had so little cancer to start with.

We will continue to monitor his symptoms and counts this week. Oliver’s ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count- which measures the number of white blood cells in the body fighting infections/tells us about the body’s immune system) is essentially zero. He is very prone to infection and sickness right now, so we have to continue to be careful about what he is exposed to (no crowds, no indoor spaces) and careful that he doesn’t get a scrape/cut (which his body would have a hard time fighting off). Things we often take for granted like our body healing a scrape or fighting a common cold, Oliver has to be extra careful about now (and honestly for the next few months). His blood counts will likely recover some (the chemo made them low on purpose so the T cells could have a fighting chance) over the next couple weeks and then we will go to bone marrow transplant, where his counts will get knocked down again.

We just found out that Oliver has a 9/10 donor available to give marrow on May 28, so the plan is for Oliver to be admitted to UNC on May 18th, about 10 days after we get back from Seattle. It’s good and bad that we know what to expect during transplant, but it’s logistically and emotionally overwhelming and we are trying to do one thing at a time. He will only be able to go to transplant if this CART therapy puts him into remission.

Thank you for your continued prayers, notes and encouragement you continue to send us. It’s been a rainy few days here and we are ready for some sun (or maybe that’s just me).