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.







Friday, May 13, 2011

The Latest

Well I just realized that I have not updated this since Taylor got out of the hospital. She was able to come home Easter morning which was a blessing...couldn't have happened on a better day! I took her to her moms house so she could spend Easter morning with Michelle's family, and then she came over in the afternoon and was able to spend time with my family. I think she made up for a months worth of not eating all in one day!



Now we can't keep her at home or still...she has gone to the lake, Braves game, her boyfriends, out with friends...and I am not complaining at all! I think the last 6 months have given her a whole new perspective on things. Before you could never get her out of the bed, now she likes walking outside, riding the Polaris, just getting out. Little things that she would get upset over aren't as big of a deal anymore. I think she has matured a lot and I could not be prouder of how she has come through everything! She doesn't go around feeling sorry for herself and thinking "why me?" which I think it huge, especially for a 15 yr old girl!!

Taylor has to go once every couple of weeks for check ups and blood work. The first week she went back was good, they said her counts were better than they thought they would be...this past week, not so much. Her blood counts were extremely low and they were surprised she had not passed out yet. They gave her blood on Weds and again on Thurs. They were schedule to do a bone marrow test but had to reschedule it for next week. As long as things come back good then, she should be able to have her port taken out within a week or two after that.

So with that being said, we will keep you posted on the results from her next test. Thank you guys again for all of the support for our family these past few months. We certainly live within a great community of people!
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