About Me

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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.







Wednesday, December 29, 2010

December 29, 2010

I know it has been awhile since the last post...I apologize, the holidays have been crazy the past couple of weeks! Taylor is doing great and should hopefully be coming home next week sometime. This time around has been a lot easier on her than the last, no fevers, no getting sick and her spirits seems to be a lot higher. She's been making it a point to go to the teen meetings that have during the week and taking the younger kids to the playroom when she gets a chance to...she is great with kids, so I think that is something good for her to be doing.

It is unfortunate that she had to spend Christmas in the hospital this year, but we made a point to try to make it as enjoyable for her as possible. We set up a little Christmas tree and what decorations we could put up. Ashley and I went down Christmas Eve and brought her gifts down there to her and a lot of my family came down to see her...my brothers & sisters, nieces and brother/sister-in-laws. She got to spend Christmas day with her mom, so it was a busy weekend for her I guess. I appreciate everyone taking the time to make her day a little bit brighter! Hopefully she will be out in time for Jenna's birthday, I know Jenna would love to have her sister home to help celebrate it!
The picture is of Taylor with her cousins Savannah and Jessica. We have some more we took and will put them up as soon as we get them downloaded. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and enjoys their New Year this weekend!
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Thursday, December 9, 2010

December 9, 2010 - Round 2

Well to start off with some good news...Taylor's results from her bone marrow and spinal tap came back negative which means she is now considered in remission since there are no leukemia cells in her blood!!! She does still have to continue with her scheduled rounds of chemo though, according to the doctors the more they do, the less likely it is to come back.

Unfortunately the spinal tap didn't make her feel so hot this round. Unless she was laying down, she had pretty bad migraines and I think between that and the shot of chemo in her spine, it made her physically sick. The first time she was in the hospital and laying down all day, doped up with benadryl and pain meds, but this time she was sent home with nothing. On the plus side, her boyfriend Justin was able to spend plenty of time with her while she was home so I'm sure that helped to take her mind off somethings. And no, I didn't have to meet him at the door with the shotgun or have the one-on-one, man-to-man talk with him...this one I actually approve of haha...



Yesterday she had to go back in to start her 2nd round of chemo. She is on the same treatment plan as last time, but they are starting them at night instead of during the day. I stayed with her last night and today and so far so good. She got the one medicine that always made her sick, but for now all is good...but that could also be because she hasn't eaten anything today! She ate enough last night to make up for it though, I think she tried to get in all she could in case the medicine did make her sick today. I told her last night that I wanted her to try to get out of the room more and maybe meet with and encourage some of the other little kids that are in here...now that she knows what to expect maybe she can help someone else or talk to someone who may have it a little harder than her. She is great with kids, so I think it might be good for her. But for now, my Taybe-loo is doing good!

Can't wait to see some of you all on Saturday for her bowling benefit!! Again, can't thank you all enough for the love, prayers, support and encouragement!
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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

December 1st

Today Taylor had to go to clinic and have another bone marrow biopsy and spinal tap done (standard procedure). I talked to her a little before lunch and she sounded great, said she had a little pain when she stood up but nothing too bad. Her Leukemia doctor, Dr. Cooper, said that he looked at her leuemia blasts and they were still at 0 so that is excellent news.

Her blood counts are up and if they continue to stay up, they will put her back in the hospital next Wednesday to start her 2nd round of chemo. I asked her how she felt about that and she said that she wasn't upset about it at all, that the sooner she goes in, the sooner she gets out and gets all this over with...so that's the way to look on the positive side of things! All in all, things are as good as they can be right now...so keep the prayers up and thank you everyone for everything!
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