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.
My sister went to MDA yesterday for her doctor visit. He said he is still not sure if this next treatment will be her last or not. He is watching a report that showed some residual cancer. He said it could be temporary damage due to chemo and might fix itself or could be MDS which would have been caused by chemo and treatable. If it is MDS and it gets worse, then she would need transplant but he said they wont talk about that right now as, if it is MDS, it is not yet bad enough to consider transplant. It's just something to be prepared for if it gets to that point. She will have her next (and hopefully last) treatment at the beginning of May and then he will look at all the reports and decide on next step.
So I guess prayer request right now is that all this is temporary and was caused by chemo and it fixes itself.
:( Debbie
So I guess prayer request right now is that all this is temporary and was caused by chemo and it fixes itself.
:( Debbie
Thank you for the update. Jo is always in my daily prayers.
Do they think the treatment caused the MDS or did the MDS cause the AML (which was my son's case).
Hugs
Karen
I'm thinking like Karen relative to MDS. Based on what I've read, MDS caused from cancer treatment is very rare and usually correlates to heavy doses of radiation as was the case wuthering robin Roberts who was a breast cancer survivor.
MDS can be very treatable and certainly not a death sentence in all cares. I find it interesting that the ONC could not provide a more definitive dx. I've provided a great site about MDS.
Jo continues to be in my prayers
http://www.mds-foundation.org/what-is-mds/
Blessings
Julie
I know that my mom told us that Jo was born severely anemic and she had anemia problems growing up but not too much as an adult. I don't know if that has anything to do with her eventually having AML. She had no other risk factors for it but a lot of people don't.
Anyway, she will have her chemo round in May and then another BMB and then he will decide what happens next. As I have said before, she drives me crazy because she is content to not ask too many questions. She gave me her password so I can see the doctor's notes and her reports but it's not the same as asking questions at the doctor visits. Even if I go, I don't feel I can ask the questions I want because she doesn't really want to know. She is content knowing that he will tell her when she needs to worry and I have to respect that for her. It's how she is able to deal with everything.
She is in good spirits and praying that this next round will be her last as am I! We are going to pray that all this works itself out and that it is just damage from the chemo and not MDS and that no transplant is needed.
Jo has my prayers. I don't think she had mds first, according to everything you've posted about Jo.
Tony's had some crazy post-chemo red blood cells pop up, I worry about mds when I read his heme path biopsy reports but his dr says unlikely and is from chemo and will resolve over time.
Jo has my prayers that this is the last and final round, for ever
Lea