About Me

My photo
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 18, 2011

November 9, 2011

November 9th - It's been about 5 months since I've posted last and I guess I am overdue to supply some updates!

Taylor started back to school the beginning of August and has been adjusting pretty well. Her grades have been great and she has made a lot of new friends. She had a little bit of a tough time in the beginning when she realized some of her friends she had a year ago just weren't the same people she thought they were. Well, not so much they weren't the same people as it was they are just in different places as she is. Some were into partying and things, where as Taylor is looking at is as "I just fought for my life and you are throwing yours away and putting things in your body you shouldn't". She has said that she is almost thankful she went through what she did because she could be making some of the wrong choices they are. Pretty powerful stuff coming from a 16 year old! Although she may have lost touch with some old friends, she has made some pretty awesome new friends over the past few months.

She has continued to go to church and was even baptized a couple of months ago, which makes me extremely proud! She came out of her whole ordeal with a new determination and focus on life and I couldn't be more happy about it! To this day she says that she would not change one thing about her being diagnosed with leukemia and having to go through chemo, and that it has made her who she is today.

She is still dating her boyfriend, Justin, and they just celebrated their 1 yr anniversary together. He is a great kid and is awesome to her...but it still feels weird saying my 16 year old just celebrated an anniversary with her boyfriend haha. They went to Homecoming together a few weeks back and they both looked great. Jenna had her homecoming dance the weekend before Taylor. Talk about putting a father in an early grave...Jenna looked so grown up, it's hard to look at her sometimes and remember that she is not even 13 yet!


A couple weeks ago I celebrated my birthday with my girls. In case some didn't know or forgot, Taylor was diagnosed on my birthday last year. It was not just only a celebration for my birthday, but also a celebration that I have my daughters with me still to spend it with. We went out to eat together with my parents, came home and played games...I didn't care what we did as long as it was with them!

November 18th - I started the blog above, got sidetracked and never finished it. So the latest to date is Taylor now has a learner's permit...look out world! I'm not too concerned about whether she will be a responsible driver or not, she is pretty sure about herself when it comes to driving. She's not too timid, but not overconfident either. The same day she got her permit, she also had blood testing done and everything came back great with the results! So all in all, things are going good. Now tonight, I get to go watch Jenna cheer for the first time for her school's basketball games. I couldn't convince her to play basketball so this as close as I get!
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)