Sue Chenoweth

Dear Family & Friends of Sue,


Thank you all so much for the constant inquries and concern about my mom.  It's nice to know she is loved so much!   I've been hesitant to start this site simply based on my mom's desire for privacy.   And while I want to respect her privacy, I need a better way to communicate with everyone and I believe this will be the best means to accomplish that.  Plus, we all love her and she'll just have to accept that!  


Background:
November of 2015, Sue was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer after a routine mammogram.  She underwent a 6 month chemotherapy treatment followed a double mastectomy in June.  She handled the treatment very well, and the original tumor shrunk about 66% before it was removed.


August 12, 2016 she finally had some blood test done because she had been feeling ill with what seemed like a flu virus.  Results came back with a diagnosis of  b-cell ALL (Acute Lymphphoblastic Leukemia).  Her White Blood Cell count was extremely high (550,000 compared to the normal range of 4,500-10,000) so she was rushed immediately to Kaiser Oakland where she has been receiving intensive chemotherapy treatment. Her regime is to receive 8 cycles, each cycle being 21 days.  The chemo is intended to kill the WBC completely, bring them down to 0.  That should take about 2 weeks.  Then she'll be in a "rebuilding" phase for about a weeks where the WBCs should recover back to normal range.  It's likely that her red blood cells and platelets will be also be affected by the chemo, and when that happens she will receive blood transfusions to build those back up to normal numbers.  Once her blood counts are within normal ranges and her general health is ok, she may go home for a few days before the next cycle starts.