Gabey D. is our wonderful firstborn son. He was diagnosed with A.L.L (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia) in May 2007, and has been going through a 3 1/2 year chemo treatment. We are trusting God, and believe He will show Himself Mighty.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

My Version of "About Leukemia"

The way the doctor explained his cancer to us is this....

A white blood cell's normal function is to be born, mature to become effective, and then divide to make more cells.

The problem with the leukemia blasts is that they're little immature white blood cells that have forgotten how to mature, they stay baby, and ineffective. The major problem is that these immature cells start dividing! So, you have all these baby cells with no use at all, suddenly filling up the blood stream and the bone marrow. They start crowding out the good cells.
The real, mature white blood cells, and the other cells go down, and even the ones that are there aren't working very well.

White blood cells are the cells that fight infections, so when your white blood cell count is too low, that means there aren't enough working cells to fight the sicknesses that we come across every day. They call a person with low counts.... Neutropenic. (It's more involved than they way I'm explaining it.) They have to be really careful about the things they get around, like crowds, dirt, sick people.

The doctor said one of the best defences is just hand washing CONSTANTLY, lol. That is one of the biggest ways to pass sickness. We're trying to keep Gabey away from crowds, and people who have colds etc. Mostly, right now, we're just hanging around the house. We're home, and we don't want to have to get admitted again.


This is the survival rate copied from the Leukemia Society webpage....

During 1996- 2002 relative survival rates overall were:
Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL): 65.2 percent overall; 90.5 percent for children under 5

4 comments:

Kristi said...

I'm glad you started a blog for Gabey. I think writing about it will keep us informed about how and what to pray and also it will be good for you to get your thoughts out.

I'll be praying for Gabey to be able to take his medicines without problems. Poor thing...I hate medicines! I'm so sorry the little guy has to go through this.

Give God the glory for everything. He will be what pulls you all through this valley.

Love you all,
Kristi

Kristi said...

I meant to ask you if the chemo was making him sick and what the side effects of that will be?

~Kristi

Shari said...

there are so many side effects possible for each person, but PTL, so far, gabey isn't experiencing any of the harder ones.

Janette said...

Shari,
I am so sorry to hear this news, it came as a shock to me through your e-mail.
Jon and I will be thinking and praying for you.
Remember God is the grat physician and healer, he can do all things. Be strong in your faith and he will bring you all through this.