Welcome to Lance’s CaringBridge Site
Sign In to Show Your SupportUpdating with information related to Lance's Iron Overload condition he was diagnosed with last year. Note: He's doing well. He's in college. Still under treatment at the Children's Blood and Cancer Center (CBCC).
For additional supporting links visit our Lift Brigade website...
Secondary Iron Overload
*** AWARENESS/ADVOCACY POST – THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE ***
Sharing Lance’s experience/impact related to receiving red blood cell (RBC) transfusions during his cancer treatment for T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with hopes that, at a minimum, it provides an education perspective for others.
Lance’s chemo treatment plan ended December 29, 2017. He has been under either primary treatment or follow-up care at the Children’s Blood and Cancer Center (CBCC) at Dell Children’s since September 1, 2014.
NOTE: A common side effect of chemotherapy treatments is low blood counts. In response to low blood counts RBC transfusions are a necessary treatment.
Our Message: If your child is receiving RBC transfusions during cancer treatment, advocate for complete monitoring and detailed understanding of the impact of these transfusions on their body. Your care team likely is monitoring the key liver, kidney, and heart function indicators, but may not be understanding the whole picture that, in Lance, went hidden and resulted in “life threatening” (care team comment) Liver Iron Concentration (LIC) levels. Tools that brought focus for Lance’s condition were:
Background: In September of 2020, Lance was clinically diagnosed with Transfusional Hemosiderosis which is the accumulation of iron in the liver and heart but also endocrine organs, in patients who receive or did receive frequent blood transfusions. This diagnosis is also called (Secondary) Iron Overload (IO) and is often mentioned with (Hereditary) Hemochromatosis. Severe IO causes the same symptoms as in hemochromatosis and can lead to conditions such as: fibrosis/scarring, cirrhosis, diabetes, heart failure, infertility, joint pain, and liver cancer.
The reason we are raising awareness on this condition is:
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