AML - Acute myelogenous leukemia

[murielm99]

I have checked the websites for information on this disease, and I am not asking for medical advice.

I want to know if anyone here has had any experience with this form of leukemia. Some friends of mine have a daughter who was just diagnosed with AML. She is a teenager.

It looks like the prognosis can be excellent for teenagers, with chemo and bone marrow transplants. She has three older siblings as possible donors.

How can I help and support them? Have any of you been through this with family or friends?

[Warpy]

1. Well, when she's in the hospital, forget the fresh fruit and flowers

because those are dangerous to people with compromised immune systems, which she will be. Better ideas are balloons, CDs for a personal player, and DVDs. She'll spend part of her time on reverse isolation, meaning people who come to see her will have to wear gloves and masks, and that means she's going to be lonely and very bored because those things get uncomfortable fast.

Your main jobs will be to be there and listen. She's going to need people to bitch to because her treatment is unpleasant and painful. You don't need to fix her, that's what the docs are for. You just need to listen.

Listen to what her parents need, too, from somebody to stay with the kids to casseroles for them to heat up to getting the laundry done because they're spending all their time at the hospital. A family's needs can be varied. Encourage them to tell you what they are.

That's about it. She's very sick and will get sicker in order to get well.