Hi.
I thought I’d send an update on Dad and apologize if this is the first time you have heard the news. Dad is in day four of chemotherapy and doing well. He says that he is being saved from the hospital food by Karen (Mom) and a few others. We have been told that next week will mostly likely be more difficult as the drugs build up in his system. We are all taking it one day at a time and we are very happy with the doctor.
The first round of chemotherapy is scheduled to run continuously for 14 days at which point they will test Dad’s bone marrow to see if everything (the leukemia blast cells and developing blood cells) has been destroyed. Because Dad’s blood count is low and will be much lower, it is essential that he stays as healthy as possible. Below are a few of the guidelines Dad now has to follow.
Food:
No fresh vegetables or fruit (all fruits and vegetables must be cooked)
No peppercorns (there are spores in pepper so no cooking with this spice)
No fast food (not really the same problem for Dad as the others)
Visitors:
No visitors with any illnesses
No babies (dad did get to wear a mask to see Ben last week before the chemo)
No fresh flowers in his room
No plants
Because of the treatment Dad is receiving, having visitors isn’t a good idea at this time. Dad needs to focus on helping his body heal and would not be able to fight off the minor bugs (bacteria, viruses, whatever..) that we all carry and fight without any problems.
Here are a few things we can do for him.
1. Stay positive!! It’s really important for us all to stay as positive as possible (but it’s still Dad so I’m not sure that we want to start making up any cheerleading routines just yet).
2. Do not ask how Dad is feeling. Instead, try to ask “How was your day?” (it’s hard but we don’t want to call and make Dad focus on anything that isn’t positive even if it’s just for a few seconds). Oh, if you call, you may need to let the phone ring for a long time. There are lots of nurses in and out of his room and he can’t answer the phone when his blood pressure is being taken.
3. Send cards, letters, pictures, stories, or anything that you think would cheer him up (to the house in DE – mom will bring stuff over). These will become more important as the weeks progress.
4. Continue to enjoy yourselves. Do something fun. Let us know about it.
Feel free to email me questions about Dad’s treatment, I would like to free up my Mom as much as possible. I almost went insane over the number of phone calls she was receiving at home so please don’t be surprised if phone calls are not returned.
We thank you SO much for your support and know that this is shocking and hard on everyone. I will continue to send these messages as I receive news – please let me know if you do not want to receive them or if there is anyone else I should be sending them to. I appear to have lost a lot of email addresses when I switched computers.
We love you,
Dina
ps The leukemia was diagnosed on Wednesday morning and the type/subtype was known by Friday morning, right before starting chemotherapy. Dad has AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia), subtype M1 (Myeloblastic, without maturation) – the type and subtype are both very common.
Ben and Mom in the cafeteria 10Oct02