My daughter has overall been healthy for 16 yrs. Other than severe migraines, cat scratch fever and a tonsilectomy, mild asthma which only required an inhaler during long, hot and much loved Color Guard Band Camp on the parking lot of Central Hardin High School and being overweight. She went to her Pediatrician on Dec. 21st for Birth Control and she was fine. She had been dieting and to my amazement, had lost around 20 lbs in just a few weeks. I thought.... Good job! She was serious and was being successful in her persuit to lose weight. She was eating healthy, organic fruits and vegetables and cut out fast food and processed foods and alot of sugar and starches. I was proud of her. We went back for a follow-up in about 3 weeks. Wow...She dropped another 24 lbs. Her Dr. advised her not to overdue it and make sure she was still getting the calories needed each day.. The only problem was that she spotted one day a week early. The Dr. said it would take awhile for her to get regular and if not her dose would be adjusted. On this visit I requested that she be tested for whooping cough because she had been exposed to it at school. This was on Tuesday Jan. 22 She tested positive and was out of school for the rest of the week. Thursday Jan. 31st I got her in to see her Dr. because of dizziness that had started a few weeks ago and her period was extremely heavy from day 1 and now on the 9th day. This time within a week she had lost another 8 lbs. This was unbelievable. I thought it was because of a different scale or I just didn't remember her weight from the previous week correctly. They originally thought her dizziness was because she wasn't drinking enough water and because she drastically changed her diet and was not eating enough. At the end of the exam they wanted to do a CBC. The bomb dropped. Her Hemoglobin was 5.5 and I was told that she was severely anemic. Not because of iron deficiency but because she was bleeding so heavily, probably. We were sent to the ER at Norton Children's Hospital and told she would probably need a blood transfusion and possibly be admitted. Sitting there for only a few hours and...Boom they dropped the big bomb on us. I was told that she had alot of immature white blood cells, hemoglobin was 5.5 and low platelets. I asked what is causing this. He said... High probability it is Leukemia. That's all I heard. His mouth was moving but I didn't hear anything else. I had to leave the room I sobbed in front of her and couldn't and wouldn't do it again. She was admitted, had a bone marrow extraction on Friday and it concluded that she has Acute Myelgenous Leukemia. They gave her platelets and blood several times and have explained that this will be the norm through an aggressive regimen of chemotherapy and she would have to remain in the hospital through chemotherapy and even a few weeks afterwards. They did a spinal tap on Monday Jan. 28th and put in her central line. At that time, her first dose of chemo was injected directly into her spine.. Then possibly go home for a few days then return for round 2. She was given 3 different drugs for a period of 10 days. Cytarabine every 12 hrs for 10 days, Daunorubicin was given on days 1, 3, and 5, and Etoposide given on days 1-5.. She is very fortunate that she has only had minimal side effects. Nausea, weakness, aching bones, loss of appetite for the first 5 days, itching and now at the end one mouth sore. On the last day of chemotherapy, her wbc was practically non existent. Now with prayers and time, we will see how effective Round 1 has been. Also she has AML with Translocation of 8:21. Dr. Raj also believes that this surfaced when she started losing weight. Around the beginning of December. We will know the "stage" after the seconond Bone marrow extraction which is scheduled for February 26th. I will add to the story as we go. Thank you all for prayers and God Bless you all.
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It has been several days. Her hair started falling out about 4 days after her last chemo treatment in round 1. Saturday Feb 16 she decided to shave her head. She was aggravated by all the hai on her pillow and caused her to itch.
ANC are coming up. Now over 500. She feels good and as of Feb 13, she can leave her room because her coronavirus is gone. She has still not complained one time and being so brave. 💕
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