Day One

I never thought I'd be writing a blog like this...
Mom has been feeling a bit tired and not like herself for a month or so. She also was bruising alot, and they were big, ugly bruises. Then I guess she started either coughing blood or at least there was sign of blood in her throat. She went to the doctor on Tuesday and they decided to run blood tests and get her in for a CT Scan next week. The blood tests came back a day later(yesterday) and showed she has leukemia.

Now, what I knew was that they thought she might have a thyroid problem and was scheduled for a CT Scan...that's all she told me at the time. She called me yesterday at about 1:45 and told me that she was headed for Portland, that she has leukemia and she had to start chemo immediately.
Kam and I rushed over to her house where she was getting her clothes together. Cale wasn't answering his phone so we called Rheanna, who said she'd try but he was in meetings all day. He called about 15 minutes later...she cried and cried when she talked to him. I've been crying all night. One of the last things she said was she was going to see my kids graduate and now thats all I can think about.

Finally talked to Dad about 9:30 last night. They gave her a first dose of chemo(pill) at 9pm and they were preparing for a blood transfusion within the hour. When I talked to him this morning he said they are giving her four "general" chemo pills every 6 hrs for now. They took blood again this morning to see if she needs another transfusion. They are also looking at doing a bone marrow biopsy today. This will help determine what type of leukemia it is(we know it is acute but there are several subtypes) and what kind of treatments to do going forward. She may need a bone marrow transplant...

Cale and I are headed up to see her this afternoon. They had told us she will probably stay in Portland at the hospital for 2 weeks and then more outpatient chemo after that.