Thanks for checking in. I haven't been as big of a poster here as I was on Shaggy, but even then, I took a step back.
I went through the in patient process and ended up in the hospital for about 30 days. Pretty brutal, but got through it. Fortunately, I have the "favorable" kind of AML leukemia, which still sucks as only about 60% of cases are cancer free after 5 years. Not super great odds. Those odds are getting better with better treatments and I am on the young side, so we'll see. Leukemia is a weird one as you can't just cut it out and hit what's left with chemo/radiation. It's much harder to trace and treat.
After the hospital stay I was officially in remission, but with AML, it is super common for it to roar back if you don't continue with treatment and try to target the remaining cancer cells. So, after the hospital, I had a few weeks out that felt relatively normal while we figured out why treatment to continue with.
We met with the doctor in Austin (where we live) who treated me in the hospital and a leukemia specialist at MDA in Houston. We decided to go with MDA instead of the Austin regimen, even though it is a pain going down there for treatment. The Austin group was following the standard national procedures (the 60% cancer free in 5 years results) while MDA is more aggressive with their treatments. MDA is the best cancer hospital in the country (world?), and they have seen better results than the standard. Typically, what they do early on becomes the standard years later. The doctor in Houston also saw two other patients with my kind of AML the same day I was there while the Austin doctor hadn't seen a case like mine in 6 months. With the relatively young age (40) and general good health, it's worth being more aggressive and see if we can kill this thing off.
So, basically, we are doing 6 consecutive 4-week cycles. Week 1 is the chemo in Houston, week 2 my immune system (white blood cells, neutrophils, platelets, etc) goes to zero and it shuts down my immune system. This is the week I need to be careful around others. Week 3, I am still low on the immune system as my marrow restarts and week 4 I should be getting back to normal. Then we start over with Week 1 in Houston. During weeks 2-4, I am being monitored by the Austin doctor to keep an eye on my cell counts. During my first cycle (I am in the middle of #2 now), I had a 102 fever for 1 day and I was in the hospital for a week. They don't fuck about when your immune system is basically non-existent.
After these 6 cycles, we'll see where we're at. Hopefully, the cancer cells are diminished to the point of avoiding a marrow transplant and getting a clean bill of health. Marrow transplants are 30 days in the hospital and another 60 days of monitoring. If all goes well, it's a miracle cure, but there is a decently high rate of serious issues (including mortality) if it does not go well. I'd like to avoid taking that risk.
Sorry that's a lot. TLDR: Cancer sucks and you should avoid getting it.
Man, they got off light with you. I'm pushing $700K (out of pocket $5K for me) and I am in the middle of cycle 2 of 6. I already hated our health system and this process has not helped. I actually quit my job the week before my diagnosis (great timing!), so I had to sweat out the timing on getting on COBRA so I didn't have a lapse in coverage. It was a huge stresser at a time that I didn't need more stress.
Gospeed to you SBB and anyone else dealing with this. It's crazy how this disease comes in so many forms and how the treatments vary so wildly.