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My name is Jeff Flanagan and my daughter, Taylor, is now a 16 yr old Junior at Etowah High in Woodstock, GA. On October 28, 2010 she was diagnosed with AML, a very aggressive form of leukemia. Within 5 days she was started on extensive chemotherapy treatments. We were initially told she was going to have 5 total rounds of chemo, each lasting approximately 10 days and leaving her in the hospital for weeks with every treatment...but, she was the 1st in GA to only have to go through 4 rounds of her type of treatments. She was able to come home on Easter Day of 2011 and has been doing great since! My family and I thank everyone for all the prayers and thoughts over the last year! For more information on AML Leukemia, please see "AML Information" below.

Donation Page

All donations made will go to the Flanagan family to help cover any remaining out of pocket expenses for Taylor's medical bills. If you do not care to go through Paypal, you can also send donations made out to: Jeff & Ashley Flanagan P.O. Box 818 Holly Springs, GA 30142 Any and all donations are greatly appreciated, no amount is too small!

AML Information

"AML Information" - AML (acute myeloid leukemia) is diagnosed in about 20% of children with leukemia and approximately 500 children are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

Leukemia is cancer of the blood. It develops in the bone marrow, the spongy center of the long bones that produces the three major blood cells: white blood cells fight infection, red blood cells that carry oxygen and platelets that help blood clot and stop bleeding. When a child has leukemia, the bone marrow begins to make white blood cells that do not mature correctly, but continue to reproduce themselves. Normal, healthy cells only reproduce when there is enough space for them to fit. With leukemia, these cells do not respond to the signals to stop and they reproduce, regardless of space available. These abnormal cells reproduce quickly and when they begin to crowd out other healthy cells in the marrow, symptoms of leukemia are experienced.

Symptoms of leukemia usually occur over a short period of days to weeks. Some of the signs and symptoms for AML can be tiredness or no energy, shortness of breath during physical activity, pale skin, swollen gums, slow healing of cuts, pinhead-size red spots under the skin, prolonged bleeding from minor cuts, mild fever, aches in bones, black-and-blue marks (bruises) with no clear issue.

Patients with AML need to start chemotherapy immediately. There are two (2) parts of treatment; induction therapy and consolidation therapy. The aim of induction therapy is to kill as many AML cells as possible and get good blood cell counts back to normal. When the aim of induction therapy is achieved, it is called a remission. Induction therapy is done at the hospital and most patients are there for three to four weeks. Combining drug types can strengthen the effects of the drugs and two or more chemo's are usually used together to treat AML. Most chemo's are given through a catheter placed into a vein, usually in the persons upper chest area. The first round of chemo usually does not get rid of all AML cells and most require more treatment. Usually the same drugs are used for additional rounds of chemo. Consolidation therapy is needed because some AML cells remain that are not found by common blood or marrow tests. Consolidation therapy is also done in the hospital and as with induction therapy, patients may be in the hospital for three to four weeks at a time.







Friday, November 19, 2010

November 19, 2010 - Scary Day Today!

Well Taylor still can't get rid of the cough she has had since day one and it seems to be progressively getting worse, which is making her physically sick. It's not necessarily bad she is getting sick, since the only thing coming up is the congestion and phlem (yummy!)...it's just hard watching her as she gets sick and not being able to do anything to help it. They have given her a couple of breathing treatments to help, but even that only works for a hour or two. They did a chest xray and said everything looks good, but I swear if anyone heard the way she sounds they would certainly question the doctor's judgement!
Today they decided to put her on some new medication to help control her fevers, which didn't at all turn out to be a good idea. Michelle (her mom) called me a little after lunch to fill me in what happened. A few minutes after they gave her the medicine she told Michelle she couldn't breathe. Michelle thought she just had stuff caught in her throat from coughing up everything and told her to just swallow whatever it was, not knowing she really couldn't breathe! Apparently she had an allergic reaction to the medication which caused her throat and lips to swell and her body started turning purple...they immediately buzzed the nurse who ran in, saw her condition and called about 10 more nurses and doctors in. They gave her a quick shot of benadryl which reversed the side effects pretty quickly and needless to say, they will not be giving her that again! Scares me to think what would have happended if no one was there with her, or what if Michelle went to the cafeteria or bathroom for a minute?! So, when I got to the hospital this afternoon I made Taylor go through a "what if" scenario in case she is ever alone in a situation like that. They have a code blue button which I told her to pull if that ever happens again, I don't care if that button is only to be used by the dr's or for some other reason!!

Well, Ashley is staying with her tonight so hopefully Taylor has a good night. She stayed with her Weds night and since she can't sleep without a fan she brought a little desk one with her. Taylor said she is sleeping with it on from now on...I guess it drowns out some of the background noises.

I still wake up every morning thinking and hoping this is all just a dream. I hate that my baby is sick, that she can't eat when and what she wants, she can't be at home or that I just can't go get her and hang out with her when I want. I guess all I can do is just continue to pray and know that every day that passes is one day closer to her getting past this.
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