Sunday, September 7, 2008
My Son
My name is Miriam. I am 46
years old and I have a son who lives on the West Coast; he is 25 years
old. We found out 9 days before Christmas last year he has Leukemia.
Two days before that Allen called me and told me he found a lump behind
his groin. I told him not to panic, it could be a cyst and that he
needed to see a doctor right away. That was a blow to the head, I
tell ya. The way it happened is this; He called me and asked me what
side the appendix is on. I asked my husband who said it is on the right
side. I told our son that and asked him why. He told me he had a pain
so bad on his left side he could not breath. He was at work and was to
open the store. He was an assistant manager. This was 9am pacific
time. It was noon for me. I told our son to call his manager and let
him now he had to go to the emergency room. He called an ambulance and
collapsed right after that. My son ( Allen ) had his roommate call me
at around 3pm my time and tell me that the doctor thinks Allen has
cancer. Needless to say I dropped the phone. His father was also
quite upset, but was able to keep a level head and be calm. I was the
one who was not doing to well. Throughout the day I spoke with his
doctor. The doctor told me that was Allen's lymph node. The only time
that is enlarged is when there is a blood cancer. He said he thought
Allen either has lymphoma or Leukemia, they were still doing tests.
The CT Scan showed Allen's spleen was 5x its normal size. At midnite
our time Allen called to tell us it was confirmed, he has Leukemia. He
put the doctor on the phone who explained to me Allen was being
transferred to a cancer hospital. That was done around 2am our time.
That morning the doctor at UCLA Medical Center preformed a bone marrow
biopsy. Allen told me that was the most painful thing he has ever
experienced in his life. He was sedated, but he could still feel the
needle going into his bone and could here it also. It was 3 days later
we found out his Leukemia was CML. It is Chronic the slow moving
type. I was told that was the best one. He stayed in the hospital for
8 days. He was put on Gleevac which is Chemotherapy in pill form. He
seemed to be tolerating it fine. The only thing is, his platlets would
drop to a dangerous low and so would his white blood count. The doctor
would take him off for a week and back on again. I was not comfortable
with that schedule because I thought that would give the cancer a
chance to mutate. Well it did. But before that I went out right after
New Year's and visited him for a few days. I had a great time. He
looked good. Very thin as he had lost 45 pounds in 2 weeks, but still
not bad at all. He slept alot as he did not have a lot energy. I
understood. We would go out around 10am and he would drop me off at my
hotel room by 6pm and he went home and went to bed for the night. But
to get back to the mutating cells. The doctor told Allen the Gleevac
was not working anymore because his white blood count was starting to
climb again and decided to do another bone marrow biopsy. As it turned
out it changed to AML which is Accute, very fast moving cancer. The
doctor put him in the hospital the next day to start him on very very
aggressive Chemotherapy. That was 32 days ago. The first couple of days
was ok. He was having a hard time was ok. By the third day the
hospital called me and told me Allen was in a different room. He was
not quite in ICU yet, but one step below. He had stopped breathing and
Allen is a DNR (do not resitate) patient. They had to do a sturnum rub
to shock him back to conscienceness. He was there for two days. Then
he was moved to ICU because he had gotten worse. Very weak. He could
barely talk. He could not feed himself, could not get up to go the
bathroom, could not bathe himself. He was so embarrassed. I told him
not to be. He is in the hospital and a cancer patient. These things
happen. He was there for one week. He literally thought he was
dying. He called his brother and sister and made peace with them. He
called his dad and made peace with him. And then he called me and made
peace with me and told me he made peace with G-d. My husband and I
bawled. We were beside ourselves. We were going to make an emergency
trip out to see him by that night. This was on a Sunday and the Vet's
office is closed. I was going to call the Vet and ask him if he could
make an emergency trip to the office so we could board our animals. I
was going to make air plane reservations for midnight that night. My
husband told me then I should call the doctor to see how Allen is
doing. The doctor said he is fine. He is in no danger of dying, just
a bad reaction to the Chemo. Allen was not put back on it. He asked
not to be. He is now on a new Chemo pill called Sprycell. It is used
only when Gleevac does not work. It makes him very weak, fatigued, and
a very bad headache. His white blood count is not coming up and his
red blood count is not coming up. His platlets are coming up thought.
He sounds good on the phone. He was told he could have a bone marrow
transplant, but there is a 15% death rate with that and Allen does not
want to die. The doctor told him he can live with Leukemia without a
transplant as long as he stays on the Sprycell. She also told him he
will probably have to have Chemo injections in the hospital every two
years. He said that is ok. He will be glad when he can finally go
home. He told me a couple of nurses who are around his age offered him
a place to stay with one of them. He said they really like him. So
that is what is going on in my life at this time. Sometimes I feel
good and sometimes I have very bad anxiety attacks and wish I could be
out there with my son.
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