How much bad news is enough? When this ordeal started, the initial bad news was ITP. Two weeks later, it changed into MDS.
Whoever heard of these things?
Now the bad news is this: the MDS has turned into AML leukemia. Acute Myeloid Leukemia. (See here for info: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_2_1x_What_Is_Acute_Myeloid_Leukemia_AML.asp?sitearea=)
Well, at least leukemia is a disease I'd heard of.
Heard of, but hardly understand. Apparently there are a zillion types of leukemia, and a half-zillion variations on AML.
Okay, I exaggerate. But, still, nothing in this micro-biological world of bone marrow cells appears to be straightforward.
So, I'm beginning to think that a little ignorance will go a long way in dealing with what's coming.
And, just what is coming?
Well, I'm going to be living in this hospital for at least the next month. And, during my stay I'll apparently be subjected to ridiculously high doses of chemotherapy drugs, a cocktail of two or three of them. This will render my immune system useless, but once the treatment (7 days) is done, hopefully, over the following three weeks of my hospital residence, the leukemic cells will be gone and the system will begin to recover.
Then they'll let me out for a couple of weeks.
Then, they'll re-institutionalize me for five days of chemo and about a 10-day stay.
Then, they'll repeat this catch-and-release process two or three more times.
Add it all up, and it looks to me like I'll be doing this in/out of hospital and drug-em-up/let-em-recover routine for the next six months.
This can't be good for either my skiing or my golf game.
But, the alternative is to do nothing, which kind of guarantees that I'd be dead by golf season anyway. Which leaves me with no choice, really. And, sometimes having no choice is a good thing. No dithering with to-do or not-to-do decisions, or with choosing from Treatment A, B, C or D.
The action starts tomorrow. Plug me in and let's go.
Whoever heard of these things?
Now the bad news is this: the MDS has turned into AML leukemia. Acute Myeloid Leukemia. (See here for info: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_2_1x_What_Is_Acute_Myeloid_Leukemia_AML.asp?sitearea=)
Well, at least leukemia is a disease I'd heard of.
Heard of, but hardly understand. Apparently there are a zillion types of leukemia, and a half-zillion variations on AML.
Okay, I exaggerate. But, still, nothing in this micro-biological world of bone marrow cells appears to be straightforward.
So, I'm beginning to think that a little ignorance will go a long way in dealing with what's coming.
And, just what is coming?
Well, I'm going to be living in this hospital for at least the next month. And, during my stay I'll apparently be subjected to ridiculously high doses of chemotherapy drugs, a cocktail of two or three of them. This will render my immune system useless, but once the treatment (7 days) is done, hopefully, over the following three weeks of my hospital residence, the leukemic cells will be gone and the system will begin to recover.
Then they'll let me out for a couple of weeks.
Then, they'll re-institutionalize me for five days of chemo and about a 10-day stay.
Then, they'll repeat this catch-and-release process two or three more times.
Add it all up, and it looks to me like I'll be doing this in/out of hospital and drug-em-up/let-em-recover routine for the next six months.
This can't be good for either my skiing or my golf game.
But, the alternative is to do nothing, which kind of guarantees that I'd be dead by golf season anyway. Which leaves me with no choice, really. And, sometimes having no choice is a good thing. No dithering with to-do or not-to-do decisions, or with choosing from Treatment A, B, C or D.
The action starts tomorrow. Plug me in and let's go.
Posts
We're rooting for you. If Penny's continuing with email updates, please add us: prblack@pacbell.net; sheryl.laubergine@gmail.com. Love, Paul & Sheryl
ReplyDeleteTesting testing, not texting; ok, looks like I can do this in Safari but not Firefox. Go figure. So crap, it looks like you just got a whole load of alphabet soup. And the fixer I'll bet they'll be pouring into a semi-permanent tube up near your left clavicle. Suck it all in, gorge your veins so the stuff can get right to work. I just read something on "forest bathing," getting woods experiences and they found that people in hospital rooms with a view of "nature" healed faster than those without. But get this, if they didn't have a nature view, a nature picture on the wall was just as good. Want I should send you some pictures? We're rootin' for ya, chanting too.
ReplyDeleteSteve
Yikes! This is not the news you wanted to convey or your friends wanted to read. Fingers crossed that the chemo and the cocktail and whatever else will do some medical magic.
ReplyDeleteGuys--
ReplyDeleteWe're holding on well. No forest views, but a nice view of the parking lot.