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.







Thursday, January 27, 2011

January 27, 2011 - Bring on Round 3!

Taylor went back in the hospital yesterday to start round 3 of chemo. We originally thought she would be on different medicines than the last 2 times, but found out she will still have 2 of the 3 she had been receiving. Instead of them lasting over 10 days, they are giving it to her twice a day for 5 days. The plus side is she won't have to be plugged up to monitors for so long, but the downside is she will experience flu like symptoms...which have already started as of today. She feels alright, just not much of an appetite for food and her energy level is low (not sure if that the effects of chemo or just normal 15 yr old behavior haha).

Her bone marrow and spinal tap results from last week came back good again...still in remission which is the best news we could ask for! Her blood levels have been staying pretty high, no fevers, no infections.We are almost halfway there!

Some of you may or may not know, but we are having a benefit for Taylor this weekend. It will be located at 4568 Cumming Hwy in Canton (the old Buffington Elementary Gymnasium on GA-20). We are having a community yard sale from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m., we have just about anything and everything! If you have items you would like to donate to the cause, you can drop them off after 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and someone will probably be there at least until 8 p.m. or so. Then from 7p.m. - 11:30 p.m. we are having a teen dance. It will be a $10 donation entry and all proceeds go to Taylor's medical fund. There will be a DJ and concessions provided...and it will be heavily chaperoned! Hope to see you all there!
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Sunday, January 16, 2011

January 16, 2010

Sorry it has been a couple of weeks since the last update! Hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and safe New Years!

Unfortunately Taylor had to stay in the hospital for both Christmas and New Year's, but on the plus side she was able to come home in time for her sisters 12th birthday. Her and I rang in the New Year together and we are both optimistic that this year is going to bring some good things for her! As long as things keep going like they are, she will be over and done with all her chemo in time for her 16th birthday, giving us more than one reason to celebrate it!

 She came home on January 3rd and is still home as of now. She was supposed to go this past Weds for another bone marrow test and spinal tap, but with all this snow and ice we got, she wasn't able to make the appt. She has it re-scheduled for this Weds, so more than likely she will go back in the hospital for her 3rd round of chemo by the weekend or early next week. It's been nice because the last time she was out for 2 weeks, one whole week of which she spent feeling horrible from the marrow test and spinal tap. At least this time she will have a couple of good weeks home before having to go through all of that. She is a little nervous though because her first two rounds of chemo were the same medications, this next one will be different and she doesn't know how she will react to it. Hopefully things will go as smooth with this next one as the last one.

We were able to spend time today with her, Jenna and Justin (Taylor's boyfriend) for my mom's birthday. She was able to come and see all of her aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents all at once which has been a rarity for the past couple months. It was good to get to see her relax a little bit and have a moment to not have to worry and dwell on everything that is going on. Well, that is all we have for now. We will keep everyone posted on when she goes back in and how things are going. Please keep her in your prayers, and thank you to everyone for everything you have done for her and our family!
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