The Gift of Modern Medicine

You may remember that my mother has Chronic Lymphomic Leukemia (CLL); she was diagnosed right before my sister's wedding in 2004 and underwent chemo after and has been relatively healthy since. Her health has been declining though, and last month she developed cellulitus in her right hand/arm from a strep infection, and she spiked a fever of 106 and her arm ballooned up to almost twice her normal size. She went on IV antibiotics and had several blood transfusions and recovered successfully enough.

Unfortunately, the infection was a symptom of her climbing white blood cell counts that pushed the need for another round of chemo to the immediate. She is doing one week per month for four months. This week she was supposed to start her second round, but a fever over the weekend put it off and she got blood instead and will try for chemo again next week.

Eight years is a long time to be in remission, so that was extremely promising. We've learned of a clinical trial that is testing a cure - one of Uncle Tim's supplier's wife is in it and showing good results. (That grammar is bugging me, but I don't know how to fix it!) That would be amazing, but there's a long path from clinical trials to use. I just worry about her, you know?