Recap

I know that there are some readers who are fairly new to the blog so to recap:

The purpose of this blog is to keep family, friends and other interested persons informed of my youngest son's progress with leukemia treatment. Malcolm was diagnosed in early June 2010 with AMKL, a type of AML (leukemia) relatively common among children with Down syndrome. This was not a complete surprise as we knew Malcolm had a higher than normal risk of developing leukemia since he was born with a rare blood disorder which can be a precursor to this particular type of leukemia.

Malcolm began treatment in early July. He is currently in the middle of round three of six treatments. Each of the first four treatments is identical - a sedation to inject chemo into his spine followed immediately by 96 hours of IV chemo. Then his counts begin to drop as the chemo works its magic. Malcolm must be in hospital from the start of each treatment until his counts fall and then rise again. He is discharged when his ANC climbs back to 500. So he is typically in the hospital for 3-4 weeks for each round. We expect his treatment will take at least six months in total.

Malcolm has been tolerating the treatments quite well without getting really ill. His energy and appetite are a bit low at times. In the first round, he had some neutropenic fevers when his ANC was low but it was smooth sailing the second round.

We are thankful for all the support we receive from family and friends and hope that you all continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Mary Ellen