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, March 23, 2011

Round #4 Underway

Taylor went back in on March 9th for her 4th round of chemo. This one consisted of her getting one medication (ARC), which she has received every round and she got that one this time every 12 hrs for 6 days, then another medication for days #3-6. She was a little sick for a couple of days and had a little bit of a hard time keeping food and drinks down, but after that it was game on...she definitely made up for the eating after they stopped the chemo! Here's a picture of her first night back in the hospital this round:


This time around she has been craving Atlanta Bread Company's Potato Soup bowl, pepperoni Hot Pockets and pizza rolls. As a result though, she had been getting pretty bad heart burn which has caused her to get a sore or ulcer in her esophagus and it hurts a little to eat. She had requested for me to bring her some mashed potatoes tonight, so we will see how that goes...hopefully softer foods won't be too bad. Here's a picture of me and the girls fooling around with the computer camera and one of Taylor and Ashley:














Apparently last night I jinxed her by saying she hasn't had any complications and things are going good, because I received a message from her mom saying she woke up with a fever of 104. They ran some cultures and put her on antibiotics and fluids right away and we hope it will break pretty soon. Michelle said she didn't eat much yesterday or eat anything today, but then Taylor sent a text requesting a Butterfinger haha. I had to do some negotiating and told her I would let her have one after she ate something with a little more substance! I'm a little more worried about her getting a fever this time because her counts are now starting to come down, where as last time her counts were up...I just hope it doesn't take too much out of her body trying to fight this one off.

If things go as they should, she should hopefully be home in the next couple of weeks. Taylor is usually home about 2 weeks before she goes back in again, but the next round is the last one!! They are planning to give her the ARC medication again, but will triple the dosage she has been getting and she will receive that for 2 days. As long as she doesn't get any fevers those 2 days they will send her home for a week...then she goes back in again for the same 2 day treatment along with receiving some shots in her legs (which she is DEFINITELY not looking forward to!). They will wait for her counts to go down and then come back up where they should be....and then she is done for good! I know her sister Jenna will be so excited for her to be home, she certainly has missed her these past few months.

She has signed up to go to Camp Sunshine the end of June for a week, which is a camp for teens that have similiar illnesses and are going though or have gone through the same things. She leaves 2 days after her 16th bday and ithis will be a good way for her to celebrate it! She was a little iffy about going until she found out her favorite nurses would be the cabin counselors and she would be bunking in one of their cabins. I think it will be an awesome experience for her and I hope she takes a lot from it. Considering how good she is with kids, I can see her volunteering there in future years :-)
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