The Diagnosis

On July 16th my Mom went in for her annual physical exam. Yes, her annual physical exam. At the time she was experiencing mild flu like symptoms but she felt like she was getting better. Her physical exam was unremarkable and her blood work was great except her white blood cell count was low. Two days later her doctor repeated her blood work and her white blood cell count was still low. Her doctor suggested re-checking her white blood cell count again in two weeks. However, my Mom was still experiencing mild flu like symptoms.  Knowing her white blood count was low, I pushed her to call her doctor and tell her that she wasn't feeling. She did and blood work was repeated. Her white blood cell count was still low. My Mom’s internist then sent her to a hematologist/oncologist. I went with my mom to this appointment and warned her that the doctor will most likely recommend doing a bone marrow biopsy. My Mom was fine with that. A week later my Mom had a bone marrow aspirate and biopsy performed. Three days later her doctor's office called and asked her to come in on August 14. I never expected her bone marrow results to be abnormal. Her doctor didn't expect her bone marrow results to be abnormal but they were. Both my Mom’s bone marrow aspirate and biopsy revealed Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).  Two days later my Mom was admitted to the hospital and started on induction chemotherapy.  She was treated with two chemo drugs for seven days, one she continuously received for seven days and the other for three days.  She handled the chemo great.  No nausea or vomiting. My Mom remained in the hospital for another 4 weeks while we waited for her platelets, red blood cells and neutrophils to recover.  During this time my Mom received multiple blood and platelet transfusions and was monitored very closely for infections.  Thankfully she didn’t spike any fevers.  She did however have an adverse reaction to a medication that she was given to help control bleeding and passed out twice.  The first time she passed out she feel and fractured her ankle in three places.  The second time she didn’t hurt herself but she was bradycardic (slow heart rate) which scared me to death.  Her doctors stopped the drug and she’s been fine since then.  My Mom was finally released from the hospital on September 22 when her neutrophil count reached 500.  Prior to leaving the hospital a bone marrow biopsy was repeated and preliminary results revealed that she’s in remission!  Even though my Mom is in remission more treatment is needed because with the type of leukemia she has her doctors know that a few leukemia cells still remain in her body.  If these cells aren’t destroyed, they will cause a relapse.  The next phase of my Mom’s treatment starts tomorrow.  It is called consolidation chemotherapy.  The goal of this chemotherapy is to destroy any remaining leukemia cells.  She will be in the hospital for four weeks this time.  The first week she’ll receive one chemo drug and then she’ll spend the next three weeks recovering.