Sent Home Early

I can't really tell you in words how it felt to walk into the room with the entire medical team (Dr's, Nurses, Fellows & interns) all sitting around our (Lora's) bedside with what I recall as being a very serious attitude and concerned body language. Well another long story shortened, we were told that the 2nd (3rd) biopsy revealed that in fact Lora's condition was indeed likened to MDS and "technically" not Acute Leukemia. "Well, that's better right?" is what I recall saying aloud. In fact, there is an imaginary border line used in oncology practice which delineates the precursory MDS condition from that of AML. This delineation is comprised of the ratio of blast (cancerous or displastic) cells to healthy stem cells in the bone marrow. Below 20% equals MDS, while above 20% equates to AML. Lora hit the 16-18% range, where based on the first biopsy, she was thought to be in the 20-22% range. Now we were sent home to do chemo-therapy in an out-patient setting. The drug of choice would also differ, using a milder, less toxic type of drug known as decitabine (Dacogen brand). The regiment would be 5 days on with 4 weeks rest between. (We later found that it's really 3 weeks rest between, because the 4 weeks starts on day one of chemo) This would be repeated for likely 4 cycles. Lora was given a unit of platelets prior to the C-line going in, and later 2 units of red cells (Apos) before going home. We were in the hospital only 3 days. With this fresh veno, Lora was basically symptom-free with the exception of a giant double lumen Hickman Catheter dangling out of her chest. Jacob's first and only comment was something along the lines of hooking mommy up to the Wii (yes, the tubes are white).