Jeremy was diagnosed September 3 with Stage 1 chronic myeloid leukemia. As the Medically Ignorant Sister, here's my glossary of his illness.
Stage 1: Best out of four stages - it was caught early enough to treat with the best chance for a good outcome
Chronic: Better than the alternative, acute. Melanie the LPN told me why acute is worse but I forgot. I think it's more advanced or more serious or something.
Here's more from About.com (which I love):
What Is Chronic Myeloid Leukemia?
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a cancer of the blood cells in the blood and bone marrow. CML develops from an acquired genetic abnormality.
During cell division some of the DNA from chromosome 9 is transferred to chromosome 22. This change is called the Philadelphia Chromosome. When this abnormality occurs, the body signals to many stem cells to develop into a type of white blood cell, called a granulocyte. Some of these granulocytes never mature. The immature granulocytes are called blasts.
As the cancerous granulocytes and blasts multiply in the blood and bone marrow, fewer healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets are produced.
It seems that in Jeremy's case, it may have been just a matter of time before he developed the disease. It's nothing that was passed down from an earlier generation, nothing that could have been caused or prevented. It was just Jeremy's DNA.
We're all starting to be very grateful for a serious car accident that Jeremy was in a few years ago. It messed up his foot to the point that it still hasn't healed and requires more surgery. It was during a pre-operative appointment that the doctor found the abnormally high white blood cell count. If the accident had never happened, Jeremy's leukemia might not have manifested itself until it was much farther advanced, and then harder to treat. You just never can tell what the future holds, can you?
Jeremy started chemotherapy September 4. I pray it will "work." I'm sure he'd appreciate the prayers of anyone who'd like to offer them. Thanks in advance.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
House Hunting... Again...
Once again, we're ready to get the heck outta here. We're officially sick of where we live. (How many times have I said that?)
This morning we're going to meet a lady and tour a house to rent, which looks really cute from the curb. It's in our old school boundaries, so if we get this house, we'll switch the little boys to the nearby elementary school that Brennan, Isabella and Harrison went to before we moved here. Carter will be the only newbie, but there are more kids from church at this school, so he'll have some friends. And yay! It's still in our ward boundaries! We've lived here ten years and have always gone to church with the same group of people. They become like your family, so we're eager to keep that continuity in the kids' lives. Here's hoping this lady likes us!
Brennan and Isabella are anxious to stay at their current schools, and with all the times we've moved them around, we feel like now would be the time to keep them in their little social circles. We'll have to drive Brennan to early morning Seminary anyway, and a bus will take him to school from there. Bella's school starts so late that I'll be able to get everyone else out the door before I drive her anywhere. She hates the bus, since the kids' language is so gross, so this works out. These two are excited about their classes this year - Chef Brennan has a culinary arts class he's looking forward to, and Bella's taking three honors classes, the little smarty - and how many middle/high school classes do you remember being excited about? They're staying right where they are.
Tomorrow's the first day of school and yesterday we went school clothes-shopping. I'm grateful for my husband's good job and all the screaming deals we found. I'll post pictures of the kids tomorrow.
Otherwise, we're all healthy and looking forward to a very busy autumn. Hope things are going well where you are, too.
This morning we're going to meet a lady and tour a house to rent, which looks really cute from the curb. It's in our old school boundaries, so if we get this house, we'll switch the little boys to the nearby elementary school that Brennan, Isabella and Harrison went to before we moved here. Carter will be the only newbie, but there are more kids from church at this school, so he'll have some friends. And yay! It's still in our ward boundaries! We've lived here ten years and have always gone to church with the same group of people. They become like your family, so we're eager to keep that continuity in the kids' lives. Here's hoping this lady likes us!
Brennan and Isabella are anxious to stay at their current schools, and with all the times we've moved them around, we feel like now would be the time to keep them in their little social circles. We'll have to drive Brennan to early morning Seminary anyway, and a bus will take him to school from there. Bella's school starts so late that I'll be able to get everyone else out the door before I drive her anywhere. She hates the bus, since the kids' language is so gross, so this works out. These two are excited about their classes this year - Chef Brennan has a culinary arts class he's looking forward to, and Bella's taking three honors classes, the little smarty - and how many middle/high school classes do you remember being excited about? They're staying right where they are.
Tomorrow's the first day of school and yesterday we went school clothes-shopping. I'm grateful for my husband's good job and all the screaming deals we found. I'll post pictures of the kids tomorrow.
Otherwise, we're all healthy and looking forward to a very busy autumn. Hope things are going well where you are, too.