Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A Journey

In my last post, I wrote about our dilemma of having to make the decision to meet with a bone marrow transplant team at a new hospital we had never heard of, or waiting almost two months to meet with the team at UPenn, our first choice of hospitals. We ended up choosing the new hospital, Jefferson University Hospital because we felt time was of the essence and our doctors assured us they have a good team and program. So our appointment is soon, on March 11.

We were getting used to the idea of Jefferson University hospital when Dr. Behrens and Diane managed to get George an appointment at UPenn for March 16! So, now what do we do? My first instinct was to take the appointment at UPenn. It was, after all our first choice and seems like there were some strings pulled to get us in there. George said he had gotten it into his mind that we were going to Jefferson now. Our new dilemma: which hospital should we choose? So, we asked the doctors what we should do. They, along with Diane, suggested keeping both appointments (they are after all, only consultation appointments) and then choosing the hospital we felt most comfortable with.

So, tomorrow we are scheduled to meet with Dr. Wagner (“Wags”, according to Dr. Behrens) at Jefferson University Hospital and then next week, we will meet with Dr. Lorens at UPenn. We are eager to get this the bone marrow transplant process rolling and now we just have to see if George does indeed get released from the hospital today. He had a CT scan of his leg last night and Dr. Kim, the orthopedic surgeon will assess him today. He is still neutropenic, but I think he can come home regardless. We shall see!