My father diagnosed today

Hello and I am sorry to hear that your father is poorly. It must be very worrying for you.

The fact that he is in hospital now means he will get the best treatment for the type of AML he may have- there are different sub types within AML, and the treatment will be tailored to this, along with your father’s age and other health issues. The hospital will not offer treatments if they think he cannot handle it.

When I was an inpatient myself, most of the other patients were in there 60-80s, some 90s. 

Once he has been fully diagnosed after the bone marrow biopsy, I would expect things will go very fast in terms of medications. A nurse once told me, the first cycle of treatment is usually the worst, as your body is full of disease at that point. There is a lot to take in at the beginning, and with him being in a strange environment it might be helpful to take things like soft PJs, music player, blanket, comforting pillow spray etc to make it more bearable.

Hi 

thank you so much for replying

any advise is really welcome right now as I must admit I’m terrified :( 

im putting all my energy into getting him a bag together for hospital now (with comforting things in it ) 

can I ask if you now have the all clear ? 
and on a scale on 1 being ok and 10 being horrendous how bad is the cycle of intensive chemo ? 

Hello stace1986, it is okay to feel terrified. I was very afraid myself when I was in hospital, and my husband also along with our son. The visits were a huge motivation for me. I hope you can sort out a way to keep in contact with your father regularly during his stay- whether it is phone calls, video calls, voicemails, letters and the like.

And any comforts in a strange room will be good. It is not uncommon to have mouth/ gum problems during treatment, and also nausea, so I found it helpful to have pots of apple puree/ custard/ yogurt/ lucozade/ ice cubes. I also got some head coverings as my head felt very cold after losing hair. My husband needed to buy a few more sets of PJs too, as I had bleeding issues (even from wound from blood tests) due to low platelets and needed to change clothes regularly. Then of course I was stuck for weeks in a room which was incredibly boring. I was taking things one day at a time.

Different people will react differently to the treatment. I myself was not sick, but I did have a lot of trouble with eating, and lost weight. I also lost the ability to concentrate and read and remember names because of chemo brain. I also had other complications like infections/ pneumonia, which is common. I went into remission after 3 cycles/ 4 months, but still have ongoing issues. 

Stay strong, and ask for help when you can. Macmillan and Maggies are there for you.

So sorry to hear this my granda aka basically my dad was diagnosed nearly 3 weeks ago after similar experience. Unfortunately hes not been given a good prognosis he is 81 and was up till the week of diagnosis still working.

I called 111 as I had enough of seeing him tired and being sick it was then we found out he was missing 4 pints of blood and needed transfusion they did bone marrow biopsy and soon as I heard those words I know it was leukaemia something inside just told me. We lost my grama in March and whay makes it even more heartbreaking is he confided in me he thought he was a goner almost like he knew this was coming.