David Slattery

Dave has hada rather rare blood disorder for the past five years. We have loving
referred to it as 'an old guy blood disorder'. However, when he had a
bi-yearly blood test at the end of June, all the numbers drastically dropped
(red count, white count, platelets etc.). He has been retested every two weeks
since mid-July and the numbers have continued to go lower. We chose to go to the Mayo Clinic
for a second opinion. After a record review, the diagnosis was reconfirmed that
he suffers from CMML, chronic myelmonocytic leukemia, a rare blood cancer that
effects only one in 100,000 to 200,000 thousand people a year in the U.S.,
mostly men. The doctor he saw, Aref Al-Kali, sees other patients with this
blood disorder and he recommended that Dave start chemo therapy. Chemo will be
administered through infusion for three days in a row with the following three weeks
off, for four months. He then will have another bone marrow biopsy to see if
the drugs have improved his blood disorder.  Side effects are fatigue and lowering blood
counts, especially his white blood count which heightens his chance of
infection. If you want to learn more about CMML, the Mayo Clinic website has
and informative, comprehensive description.

Dave had his first chemo infusion this morning. Because his red count was low,
 he also had a blood transfusion. It was a long day. Knowing little about the length of time it
takes to administer chemo or a blood transfusion, we learned it takes a whole
lot longer than we thought. However, his doctor, Dr. Raflores, and all the
nurses we encountered were professional, friendly and kind.  After walking through the
 door at the hospital this morning feeling like we were crossing the Rubicon, we left at five this
afternoon assured that we could handle this leg of the journey. Whew.