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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 12, 2010

November 2, 2010

Yesterday they put Taylor's port in her chest, did her bone marrow aspiration and spinal tap. Thankfully she was put under for all of it. While she was under, they also injected chemo into her spine as a precautionary measure...the leukemia likes to hide out in places like that, so they try to prevent it from doing so. She came out of the surgery a little groggy but doing great. They hadn't let her eat or drink since midnight so as soon as she came back to the room she wanted the Zaxby's she had requested earlier. We made her eat slowly to make sure everything stayed down, which it did, so that was great! She said her shoulder was a little sore from how they had to lay her to do the bone marrow test, but beyond that there was very little pain or discomfort.

Today they started her on the first round of chemo, which consists of 3 different medicines. One she has the first 5 days, another on the 1st, 3rd and 5th day, and the last she has to have twice a day for 10 days. She got sick not to long after they started the chemo but we don't know if it's from the medicine or the bagel w/creamcheese and 2 slices of pizza she scarfed down in the matter of an hour...hopefully it was the latter. After she had got sick she felt a little better and slept pretty good throughout the night. I can deal with my Taybee having a cold, being tired and just not having energy...but being physically sick hits the heart especially hard because I know this is the only the beginning of what is in store over the next few months.

We have received plenty of calls, texts and emails from friends and family checking in on her. When things settle down a bit, we would love to be able to thank each and every one of you personally for everything. It is times like these when you realize just how great of friends you have, how family can be brought together and just how loved your child really is. Thank you to everyone for your love and support, it is certainly helping to get us through each day!

Here is Taylor supporting the Dawgs for the game...such a good sport :)
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