April 7, 2026

Oliver has done well the past few days. He hasn’t had many symptoms yet and feels well as long as we keep him on Zofran (anti-nausea medication). We have had a really nice last few days with some beautiful sunshine and outdoor time.

Today is T cell day! We were here bright and early to get pre-meds (Tylenol, Zofran, and Benadryl) in case of an immune reaction to the cells. The actual cells themselves are in a 2 mL syringe and only take about a minute to push through his line! They have a very strong smell and taste and sometimes cause kids to throw up, but he ate his lollipops and did really well through the infusion. He is taking a little nap now and will be monitored for any symptoms over the next three hours. We will go home after that and come to clinic every day this week to monitor for symptoms.

The goal of the cells is now to expand throughout his body, find the cancer cells, and kill them. This could cause fevers and some organ (especially liver) inflammation. We will monitor him very closely and he will be inpatient if they want to monitor him more frequently. They see these symptoms most commonly about a week after the T cell infusion. We are hopeful that this will put him into a deep remission so that he can go to bone marrow transplant in mid-May. We are praying (and would love for you to join us) that this therapy would allow him to be in a lasting remission and would be the cure that these kids need to fight this awful cancer.

He was so cute this morning, as if he knew today was a big day. He picked out his striped collared Easter shirt to wear to the hospital. We got lots of big smiles in the car on the way there.