Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) Support Group
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), also known as acute myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells. Patients with AML usually present with symptoms such as fatigue, bleeding, infection, prompting medical attention. An abnormal blood test reading will then result in further testing in a hospital with a hematologist to determine AML.
Hi!
I was diagnosed with AML in December of 2015. For about 8 years I've been treated for Essential Thrombocythemia, a myeloproliferative neoplasm involving a very high number of platelets.
I achieved remission from an induction chemotherapy treatment, and have just finished a consolidation treatment. I will be going for a bone marrow/stem cell transplant in March. My brother is the donor as a haploidentical match.
Is anyone familiar with either AML progressed from an MPN and/or haploidentical transplants? Please let me know if anyone has any questions or needs more information. There is so much to tell but I feel like I could write a book at this point and still leave important details out.
Thank you in advance for any advice you may have to offer!
- Ev
I was diagnosed with AML in December of 2015. For about 8 years I've been treated for Essential Thrombocythemia, a myeloproliferative neoplasm involving a very high number of platelets.
I achieved remission from an induction chemotherapy treatment, and have just finished a consolidation treatment. I will be going for a bone marrow/stem cell transplant in March. My brother is the donor as a haploidentical match.
Is anyone familiar with either AML progressed from an MPN and/or haploidentical transplants? Please let me know if anyone has any questions or needs more information. There is so much to tell but I feel like I could write a book at this point and still leave important details out.
Thank you in advance for any advice you may have to offer!
- Ev
First, welcome to the board. I am sorry that your ET has progressed to AML. It is not super common for it do that as far as I know, but it can happen with any MPN.
While an AML diagnosis is never a good thing, I think that there are many positives for you to hold on to. The biggest is that you are starting a journey to be CURED of both of these diseases. I know that ET can be managed for a very long time, but now you have a path to being free of it.
My sister was a haplo match for me and we almost went down that route for my transplant, but since she had given birth to two children, it was decided that there were better options. I do have a good friend that goes to my church that had a haplo transplant at MD Anderson. Her brother was her donor as well and she is healthy as an ox six years later. No GVHD or signs of her AML.
Transplant will be tough, no doubt. Andy (a member here) and I went through transplant in November and are still working through the process. But...it can be done and it will be done. You will do great!
You have found a great resource here and source of strength. I hope that you use it. These folks were kind enough to take me in when I had no place to go because my disease, also an MPN called Chronic Eosinophilic Leukemia, had no support group since it is so uber rare.
Please let me know if you need anything else. Can you tell us a little more about you? How old? Where do you live? Where is your transplant.
I think I am going to start a transplant team 2016 thread. Check out the 2015 thread that noodle started. It will be a good resource for you.
All the best,
John
I am 41, and am being treated in Memphis, TN. I live in Arkansas, about an hour and fifteen minutes from the hospital. It's far enough away that after the transplant I'll be staying at a hope lodge in Memphis after about a month in the hospital for the transplant.