The Email

Yesterday I wrote and email to close family and friends just to help keep things straight. It was right after the doctors appointment while she was getting the bone marrow biopsy and I had some time to sort some thoughts. I was told it was good and detailed so I'll just copy it below. It summarizes about everything but I'll probably add some more and update in a bit.

"Hello everyone,

 

Here is as much as an update as I can keep straight. Alot to keep Track of.

 

99% sure yet she has Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. (CML)

 

Today we talked to doctor and go scoop on everything. Its going to be a road but its a manageable road with 90-95% she'll live a normal healthy life.

 

She's under right now, just had a bone marrow biopsy. From those results they'll be able to tell if its CML.

 

Normal white blood cell count is about 9-10,000. she is over 270,000 so they need to get that worked down.

In a couple of hours when she wakes up they'll move us to the hospital (Avera). There she will get a catheder put into her jugular veign and do a procedure alot like dialysis where they will take out her blood and remove the excess white blood cells.

 

On top of that they will start her on a mild pill form of chemotherapy that treats cancer in general. Once they find out for sure its CML they'll switch her to a specific pill that turns the switch off on her white blood cell factories which are going crazy right now. She'll then stay on that medication for the rest of her life.

 

In time and with more research, she might be able to come off of that medication but they have found in the past that when people come off, they sometimes relapse with an even worse leukemia that won't respond to medication, thereby for now she'll stay on it.

 

90-95% she'll live a normal life into her retirement. This is the first cancer they found the genetic defect for and thereby are able to treat the specific chromosome that is damaged. We are very thankful to God for this. 10 years ago she would have had a bone marrow transplant and a very low chance for survival overall.

 

In all, its going to be a rough next couple of days. By killing all the excess white blood cells she'll have alot of toxins flowing through her body and its going to be painful. The chemo and other medication has its side effects as well. By the weekend she should be able to go home and just keep on medication to control the leukemia.

 

All we ask of is more prayers. We have some decisions to make as well. We need all the wisdom we can get.

 

Thank you all for prayers and support. I'll keep you informed as we go on."