Connie is in good spirits, and concerned for her future, but still facing her illness and treatment with her usual wit and humor. This is the latest information as of today.
About 6:30 Friday night Connie was started on Induction Chemotherapy.
Orginally they were planning on a 7+3 chemo plan, 7 days of Cytarabine (ARA-C) and following that 3 days of Daunorubicin. They decided to go ahead and hit her with the Daunorubicin right from the start though since she is so "healthy" right now. So instead of 10 days of initial chemo she will be getting it all in the 7 day period.
Day 10-14 she will be at the lowest point in her blood cell count and they will repeat the bone marrow biopsy to see if there are still leukemia cells visible (So the mantra right now is "0 in 14" 0 means no leukemia cells and time to start rebuilding the immune system). If things are looking good at that point, no more induction chemo will be needed and they will do another bioposy at 28 days to make sure that her bone marrow is producing as it should and her counts are getting back to normal.
Given that her white blood cell count is good, she will then be released from the hospital and be sent home to rest and recover for the next few weeks. After that they will start the Consolidation Chemo. This will consist of 5 to 6 days in the hospital each month for a 4 month period while she receives additional chemo. It is somewhat of a maintenance mode chemo to kill off anything that may be remaining.
At this point bone marrow transplant is a 50/50 thing. If her counts stay good through the Consolidation chemo then a bone marrow transplant may not be needed, if the counts start to decrease again then they will explore the bone marrow option.
There is one big test that the doctors are still waiting to hear back on, it is a chromosomal test that gives the doctors a better indication on how she will respond to the treatment they have started. We are hoping to get the results for this tomorrow, so good thoughts are prayers that they test results come out good are much apprecciated.
The doctor said she will be feeling her "normal" self for the next week or so and then she will probably start feeling bad, either as a result of the chemo or any other bugs that might get into her system. They will be giving her anti-nausea and a variety of other drugs during the course of her treatment to combat anything that may come along.
If anyone is interested in donating blood they can do so through the Puget Sound Blood Center. We initially thought Connie would get credit for blood that is donated in her name, but it is actually just a recognition that we are donating because we have a sick friend and we want to help keep the blood bank full of donations, Connie will be receiving blood from the blood bank at times during her treatment.
Please remember any of this information can change on any day of her treatment, this is the best outline the doctors can give us as we all work through Connie having this illness in our minds.
Connie can have visitors at this time; she enjoys them at this point. We always need to be aware of her need for rest as treatment continues so don’t overstay. When visitors become restricted we will let you know. Keep conversations positive, what is going on in your life that she will enjoy hearing about. She has already heard far to many stories of “I know someone who had”, so survivor stories are great and encouraging for her to hear, but lets not over due that line of conversation.
We have set up a Facebook page called ‘Connie’s AML Fight’. Please join (Like) it as we will be posting information there and letting you know when ‘New’ posts are on her “Blog”.
Because Connie is going to be ‘inpatient’ for quite some time I wanted to encourage everyone to mail cards and pictures to her. She gets those during the day when she has the least amount of visitors and they are all being posted on her wall. The address is:
Providence Everett Medical Center
Connie Chose Room 707
1321 Colby Ave
Everett WA 98201
Thank you all for your prayers and concern for Connie.
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