Amy Malvin

As most of you know, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer in early 2003. Over the last 13 years she has had a lot of ups and downs in which the cancer at various times had spread to her lymph nods, liver, lungs and the bio duct between her pancreas and liver. She has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, stints and an array of other procedures eliminating the cancer in some areas and keeping it at bay in others.

On Tuesday, November 8th, she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. This diagnosing came following a doctors visit the prior week in which they ran blood work and saw a drastic rise in her white blood cell count. The following day (Wednesday) she was admitted to the hospital where they did bone marrow biopsies and other tests. That night my mom, dad, sister and I all met with the doctor to discuss what this means and our options.

After speaking with the doctor here is what we know.  AML is believed to be a type of cancer that develops as a result of chemotherapy treatment. The treatment for this is more chemotherapy. With this type of treatment she will be in the hospital while she undergoes chemo and a period of time after until she is strong enough to come home. The treatment will be 7 days of 1 chemo drug and 3 days of another. Around 2 weeks after the start of chemo they will follow up with bone marrow biopsies to asses the chemo's success. Then we go from there.

Currently my mom is at home where we are spending the weekend as a family. She will head to the hospital Monday morning and begin chemo.

We have been blessed with an amazing support system in all our friends and family. Many of you have already asked what you can do to help or when you can come and see her, right now she is just asking for your prayers and wants to rest.  So at this point in time we ask for no visitors but again thank you for your prayers and words of support.

- Katie