The Treatment Protocol

I have been given a large folder full of information about AML and the treatment protocol for it. I am nowhere near understanding it fully, but I thought I’d try to give you a little idea of how the doctors will be treating this disease.

Phase I is called the Induction Phase. Jim undergoes one week of chemotherapy. Three different chemotherapy drugs are used over this one week period. He then has a two week recuperation time. Jim began this phase last Thursday. They will do a blood test to check his levels after the first week of chemo. This is all done as an inpatient. If everything looks good, he will go on to Phase II which is called the Consolidation Phase. That requires three sets of a week of chemo and two weeks off for a total of nine weeks. During the Consolidation Phase after the first week of chemo, Jim will be allowed to come home, I think, to spend the two weeks of recuperation time at home. He will then be admitted to the hospital for each week of chemo. After the Consolidation Phase, a bone marrow biopsy will be done to see if he has gone into remission. This is all the best case scenario. If Jim doesn’t do well after the Induction Phase, he will need to repeat that treatment again which would be called Reinduction. Please pray that the drugs he is receiving would be effective and that Jim would go into remission quickly.

Jim continues to be about the same - tired. He enjoys visiting with those who stop by. He also enjoyed all he cards that had come for him. He gets a little stiff lying in bed all day so we strolled together through the halls of the hospital this evening so he could get a little exercise. Pray for rest for both Jim and for me. I found myself looking for the milk in the cupboard today :) That's never good!