Monday M Update

Over the weekend M had received her results from her bone marrow test. For the past year her bone marrow had been at 18% for leukemia, but after this test it was at 22% - and anything over 20% is considered leukemia so she has been properly diagnosed as having AML - Acute Myeloid  Leukemia. This is pretty common in most MDS adult cases. You can read more about that HERE if you are interested. 


My aunt L and I took her yesterday morning and had her admitted to the Bone Marrow Transplant Center at RWJ . In order for M to have the port inserted under her collarbone for the chemo treatments, she needs to have her platelets up to or over 50K. Hers haven't been over 19K for the past year. Last night she received some platelet transfusions and got her up to 31K. The reason for elevating her platelet count is so that she doesn't run a risk of bleeding out while the port is being inserted. Those with low platelet counts tend to not be able to clot sufficiently while cut and bleeding. They are optimistic that they can get her to over 50K before they insert the port. 


Once the port is inserted (we hope this will be today), she will be getting chemo treatment for the first three days only, then she will be given another chemo treatment that is on a continuous drip for seven days. So for the first three days she will be having two treatments, then the last four days she will just be on the continuous treatment. If this goes as planned she will be finished early next week. However, the treatments she will be getting will shock and affect her immune system greatly so she will need to be in a controlled environment. Her recovery period from this intense treatment is approximately 3 weeks. So, she is staying in her room for at least the next month - it is a positive air flow room in the hospital meaning that all the air in the room is pumped through a HEPA filter to prevent infections. 


When I left her last night she was in good spirits. She was given a Benadryl drip and probably made her a little loopy. When I called her last night she was a little pissed off that her food in RWJ isn't as good as the food in Somerset Medical. She was, to quote her properly, "unimpressed" with its quality. Unfortunately everything that goes in and out of her for the next month is monitored so we can't bring her anything appetizing to eat. When I called her this morning she  informed me that she had a fever of about 102º over night and that they were giving her an antibiotic and acetaminophen for that. No news on when the port will be insert as of 9:00 am, so for now just waiting. I will probably leave work early and try to stay with her this afternoon and keep her company as people come and go. I will try to update the progression of the rest of this information later this week.