Hi, Nicole. Welcome.
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Originally Posted by Nicole
-How long did your child have his/her Hickman line?
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In my case the patient was my wife, not my child, so I'll skip this question and let others answer.
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-What is the benefit of keeping it for such a long time?
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Having a Hickman is a tradeoff: It's a great convenience and avoids a lot of discomfort, for as long as regular access to veins is needed. But it's also a potential risk for an infection, and requires regular care that can be a burden. The need for it lessens over time, so you and Joshua's doctor can decide when the tradeoffs no longer favor it.
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-Are you ever considered cured?
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I'd consider a transplant to be a cure, since you've replaced faulty bone marrow production with a working system. There can be remaining medical issues, notably Graft-Versus-Host Disease as a result of the transplant, but the aplastic anemia is gone.
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-At what point is a BMT considered successful?
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The first critical measure of success is simply surviving the transplant and having counts come up from engraftment during the immediate recovery period, even thought dips in counts are common along the way. Doctors tend to measure by milestones like survival and absence of serious side effects at 60 days, 1 year, 5 years, and so on, but to patients complete success means returning to a normal life and normal life expectancy.
I see from your blog that Joshua's transplant was April 14, so you are sailing strong more than a month out. Congratulations to you and your family.