Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Update 3/30
Mom has to get blood again tomorrow. What a bummer. It's only been two weeks! Her "count" went from 9.7 last week to 8.1 this week. Not good. She still has not heard from UCLA about the treatment for MDS. Arrgh. I feel like they are being very nonchalant about this, when I want them to step on it! Her platelets are down to 22,000---the range of normal begins at 150,000. When it hits 10,000, you're in a lot of trouble. She appears to be going down about 2,000 a week.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Welcome!
We're trying out something new here: a blog. You can check in from time to time (assuming I figure out how to do this properly) to see what we're up to here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Update on my mom: the diagnosis has been downgraded from Acute Myelogenous Leukemia to "pre-leukemia" or Myelodysplastic Syndrome--which is really great news. With MDS, healthy bone marrow produces stem cells, which can develop into 3 types of blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. When the bone marrow malfunctions and the stem cells fail to mature fully, it is called MDS. The marrow of people with MDS produces too many immature blood cells called blasts. These blast cells cannot function properly as blood cells. They also collect in the bone marrow, damaging it further.
Mom is going to get a short-term treatment consisting of a shot a day for five days. It's not chemo, but chances are it will make her pretty sick. I'll update you when I find out more about when this is going to happen. Thanks so much for your prayers.
Update on my mom: the diagnosis has been downgraded from Acute Myelogenous Leukemia to "pre-leukemia" or Myelodysplastic Syndrome--which is really great news. With MDS, healthy bone marrow produces stem cells, which can develop into 3 types of blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. When the bone marrow malfunctions and the stem cells fail to mature fully, it is called MDS. The marrow of people with MDS produces too many immature blood cells called blasts. These blast cells cannot function properly as blood cells. They also collect in the bone marrow, damaging it further.
Mom is going to get a short-term treatment consisting of a shot a day for five days. It's not chemo, but chances are it will make her pretty sick. I'll update you when I find out more about when this is going to happen. Thanks so much for your prayers.
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