John Dolaghan

Last Friday night (February 9th) I took John to the emergency room because he was having pain in his right calf and he had a fever.  After the doctor at the ER saw John, he ordered a complete blood count (CBC) and found that John had no white blood cells and lower than normal platelets and red blood cells.  He arranged for John to transfer to Banner UMC, packed him up in an ambulance, and I met John at the hospital just as the ambulance driver and ER nurse wheeled him into his room in the bone-marrow transplant unit.  A few days later, after analyzing slides of John's bone marrow biopsy, a hematology oncologist told us that John had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), and as the pathologist continued to analyze more slides, the doctors concluded that John's particular kind of AML was an aggressive strain which usually required aggressive treatment, but that since John already had serious health issues (Parkinson's with progressing cognitive decline) they did not recommend the usual aggressive treatment, if any.  Today John and I decided that he would be better and happier at home with at-home hospice care. 


If you want to leave a message, scroll to the bottom of this page, find the help button and click on ''how to leave a message."  If we can communicate in this way, it will lessen my time texting and give me more time to be with and care for John.


I will try to publish updates as we learn more or the situation changes.




Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.