Today's Appt with Dr. Chu

Today was Carol's appointment with Doctor Chu to see if another transfusion was necessary. She is doing well enough to hold off until Monday at which point she will probably need it. This one should be an outpatient procedure done at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Blood work will be done again on Wednesday to check that everything is going well. She will need to have blood work done frequently to insure that her blood levels don't drop below the minimum markers.

The next part is not certain yet and will be evaluated more deeply on Tuesday at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa at Carol's 8 AM appointment. Dr. Chu did however express that he sees the turnout leaning towards the direction of Acute Leukemia. Since she is so close to the cut-off for making the call on that, it is not certain at this point. It will have to be looked at more closely with Dr. Lancet during her second opinion at Moffitt with results expected around Friday the 12th. Either the chemotherapy or the Vidaza treatments will probably begin by Monday, March 15th. We have learned that the chemotherapy, if needed, can be done at the Sarasota Memorial Hospital as well as the following 3-week recovery period.

What we are pretty certain of is that the Bone Marrow Transplant will be done at the Moffitt Cancer Center at some point (depending on whether or not Chemotherapy is needed). The transplant will leave Carol very fragile and she will need to stay in Tampa at the Moffitt Cancer Center for about 90 days to monitor her recovery. She will spend the time after the transplant in a special recovery facility where constant monitoring can be done.