*Backdated Post*
*Some content copied from Facebook Posts*
So after my last visit with Dr. Bixby just before Labor Day we decided to take advantage of me not being on chemo that month. I wasnt due to get a blood draw for a month so basically we had the entire month of September to pretend that life was normal.
We went to Arts, Beats, Eats over Labor Day weekend and saw Everclear perform. I was able to go to the Ed Sheeran concert that I had bought tickets to back in February. We took a trip to Las Vegas and did lots of touristy things like going to the Mob Museum, the Neon Museum, and going to the top of the Eifel Tower at Paris Hotel. Plus a lot of our standard Vegas things like days at the pool, eating at amazing buffets and other favorite restaurants, the high roller, the Bellagio gardens and fountain, etc. After the trip we spent a day at my family reunion and I got to go to a cider mill with my best friend Kelley and her family while our husbands spent the day at the renaissance festival.
By the end of September I was feeling pretty run down. I was getting some petichia rash which is usually caused by low platelets and I was getting really scared that I was relapsing already.
It turned out that my fears were warranted and my blood draw on Oct 2 showed a relapse. Ironically MD Anderson called me on Oct 3 to say they were ready to move forward with a transplant using my brother Michael as a 50% match donor. Unfortunately because of the relapse that was no longer going to be an option until I could get back into a state of remission.
Here is what I had to say about the relapse and plan of action on Facebook:
Oct 4:
This isn't the story I wanted to tell.
Tuesday I had my monthly blood draw.
When the phone rang only an hour later, I already knew what was coming. "Unfortunately the results showed that there are recurrent blasts in the blood"
Blasts = Leukemia
Today I met with Dr. Bixby at UofM. The plan is to try re-induction (to induce remission), but with different drugs this time. The first time I received something referred to as 7+3, a combination of Cytarabine and Danurubicen. Then for consolidation I had received high dose cytarabine.
The plan for this time is something called MEC, but without the C (which is cytarabine, which he thinks I've become resistant to) so it will be Mitoxantrone and Etoposide.
But wait. Isn't Etoposide what caused my AML in the first place? Yeah. Really weird and scary thing to think about. But I guess now that I have the mutation that causes AML I can't get it again, and it can't make it worse, and it can actually be really effective at killing the leukemia cells.
So today I will be admitted to the hospital. I'll get an ultrasound of my heart to make sure it can withstand the chemo, and my doctor will call MD Anderson to confirm that if this puts me back in remission, they will still be willing to do a transplant.
Then in the morning I will start a 6-day plan. 60 minutes of one drug and 30 minutes of the other, every day for 6 days. I'll also be getting preventative antibiotics, and when chemo is over I'll be staying in the hospital until my counts rise in case of infection, so that IV antibiotics can start immediately.
This means I'll be spending about 3-4 weeks in the hospital.
If this regiment is successful in achieving remission again, the plan will be to hopefully get to MD Anderson ASAP for a transplant.
