David Moore David J. Moore

David  was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia on Thursday, September 22 2016.  He had not been feeling well for a couple weeks with off and on fevers and headaches.  His dad had died Wednesday,  September 14.   Dave helped make arrangements with his mom and sister and the funeral was held on Saturday, September 17.  On Sunday, Sept. 18 Dave was still not feeling well so went in to immediate care to get checked out.  The doctor there ran several tests but was unable to detect the cause of the fever and headache.  He told Dave to go to the emergency department at Munster Community Hospital.  The doctor there performed a spinal tap because they were concerned it could be meningitis.  The results would not be made known for a couple days so he was admitted into the hospital. 

During the next several days they  ran battery after battery of tests trying to figure out the source of the fever.  What puzzled them was that his WBCs (white blood cells) were normal.  The only indication that the doctors had to work with was that his platelets were low.

They ruled out meningitis completely as well as any possible brain tumor as they had run an MRI of his head.  Almost every department in the building had been consulted and was working on his case. 

On Wednesday, they saw some abnormalities in his blood that made them call in a hematologist.  He told us on Thursday morning that he saw leukemic cells in the blood.  He immediately ordered a bone marrow biopsy which he conducted immediately in the room where Dave was.  He said he would look at it immediately on a slide and get back to us right away, which he did.  He came back and transferred David to the oncology floor.  Later that afternoon they installed a port into his chest.  This will allow direct infusion for anything he needs and they will be able to draw blood from it also.  Dave's first round of chemotherapy was started that evening.  It will run for 7 days 24 hours a day.   He will also get another kind 3 days, 1 hour at a time.