Hi everyone,
My dad was diagnosed with AML Jan this year (aged 55), he has done 3 rounds of chemo and was supposed to have his stem cell transplant in Aug. This got delayed due to poor recovery after his most intensive course of chemo, he was supposed to have this month but been delayed again. He was in remission earlier this year but think cancer may be returning so want him to have flag IDA chemo before his transplant.
Should I be worried or is this normal?
Please any response would be helpful
Hi 21Potter and a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am always sorry to see folks joining us and to hear about your dad.
I am Mike and I help out around our various Blood Cancer groups. I was diagnosed way back in 1999 at 43 with a rare, incurable but treatable type of Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma eventually reaching Stage 4a in late 2013 so although my Blood Cancer ‘type’ is different from your dad’s I do appreciate the challenges of this journey rather well……… especially as I have had 2 Allo (donor) Stem Cell Transplants (SCT).
My first Allo SCT was in June 2014 when I was 58….. this failed by Christmas Eve that year (Happy Christmas Mike!!!)…… so I was put on maintenance treatments and told to recover and build myself up and I went back in Oct 2015 a month before my 60th birthday for my second Allo SCT (you can see my full story in the link at the bottom of my post) and I remain in remission to this day.
The challenges your dad is experiencing do unfortunately happen. Opening the door to go onto SCT is very technical and patients need to be at a specific level with regards to their condition but also their general health and well-being.
The SCT process is very physically and mentally demanding so his medical team are looking for him to be in the right place for this to go forward.
The flag IDA chemo is just one of the many very effective salvage treatments that are used to keep the door open.
We do have a dedicated Stem Cell Transplant support group where folks (patients and family) from many blood cancers support each other in their journey.
Always around to chat and help out.
