Hi Pauli-
Just some more info. First, I have four kids too. A difficult thing to
balance alone with work and all, now this.... I will keep you in my prayers.
What the doctors mean about your dad having bone marrow left is this. The
chemicals will destroy the cells in a patients marrow. (the soft tissue in
the center of the bone) If the biopsy is "empty" after chemo that simple
means the cells were killed off and no indication of abnormal cells exist --
unfortunately the chemo also kills "good," normal cells in the process. The
hope is that the normal cells will return and the leukemic cells will not.
Just to give you hope. My dads first bout with chemo didn't work at all.
The leukemic cells were unchanged. He also went through the chemo with
flying colors, not many problems. This is called refractory. This means a
patient has cancer, went through chemo and nothing changed. Round 2 was 30
days later. It worked. Only small amounts of abnormal cells were indicated
-- less than 2%. Praise God!!! Next was a stem-cell transplant. While
waiting for dads stem-cell the doctors had dad undergo "consolidation" chemo.
Meaning - fry his bone marrow some more while we wait, just in case that
cancer returns. Well, prior to the stem cell another biopsy had to be
performed. The leukemic cells returned. This is called Relapsed. Totally
crushed us. The good news was only the MDS was back not the AML, so the stem
cell was still on.....
My reason for sharing this was to let you know that bad news does not mean
the end. Always, Always there are other choices and options. Clinical
trials are out there that your dad may be eligible for. His main team of
doctors may only be aware of the trails offered in their hospital. Let me
know where you are located and I can help direct you to some clinical trails.
My dad was willing to travel anywhere. He wants to live and after a few
persistent talks, he travels to Chicago and Houston and finally landed in Ann
Arbor, Michigan. We are very pleased with his doctors and trust them but....
I QUESTION EVERY MOVE, LOOK UP EVERY MEDICINE, AND
ALWAYS WRITE EVERYTHING IN MY JOURNAL RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. HA HA. I am
sure they just love me ;]
Tonia
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