Day 1

Some of you are reading this blog for the first time.  There is a ballad of the adventure that led here in the older posts.  If you want that history, go to the bottom (hit the Older Posts button) and read from the bottom up.  It tells the tale in a day-to-day meandering what-the-fuck-now kind of way. 

We haven't been intentionally keeping this a secret.  We thought treatment was imminent a month ago and were about to announce it to our friends.  I started a blog so Heidi wouldn't have to tell the same story over and over to everyone.  Then the diagnosis changed.  Then it changed again.  Then we kinda decided not to make an announcement until we knew what the announcement would be.  The treatment plan and start date kept getting pushed back.  Until today.

White blood counts went from 3 to 12 to 27 in the last week.  Red cell counts, which had been creeping up for the last month, started to drop again.  The bone marrow extracted last week confirmed Heidi's illness had progressed into full blown Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  Until last week we thought she had Myodisplastic Syndrome.  Before that it was AML again.  And before that, well, read the older posts.

The treatment plan starts with 7+3 induction chemotherapy (explained pretty well in the wikipedia article linked above).  Daunarubicin is given for 7 days and cytarabine simultaneously for 3 days.  Then she recovers for a few weeks in the hospital waiting for blood counts to come back up.  By the end of October she should be able to come home for awhile.  Then consolidation chemotherapy will start.  That will be cytarabine again, but only for a few days with a much shorter hospital stay. 

This should get the disease under control, but it does not cure the leukemia.  The only cure is a stem cell (bone marrow) transplant.  The doctor very frankly told us not have the stem cell transplant in Tucson.  He said the chance of success is very dependent on the number of transplants the facility does.  The more practice they get, the more they can handle the intracacies without allowing small complications to become large problems. 

Best guess now is that the stem cell transplant will happen at Fred Hutchinson in Seattle in december.  But that depends on getting through the beginning steps first. 

Heidi can have visitors.  They encourage her to have visitors who force her to get up and walk around the floor.  Anyone over 2 can visit, as long as you are not sick.  You can bring most kinds of food (Heidi likes ice cream sandwiches lately)  Raw foods are problematic.  Real flowers, fake flowers and plants are not allowed.

Ways to contact Heidi:

Walk in
University Medical Center room 3714

Snail mail
University Medical Center
Heidi Greeley Room 3714
1501 N Campbell Ave
Tucson, AZ 85724

Phone
520-694-3160 bedside
808-268-8831 cell & text

Email
Heidi@gr23.com

Instant Messenger and Video Chat
HeidiGreeley@hotmail.com

Don't delay; contact her today!

The best thing that anyone can do to help is to join the National Donor Marrow Program.  Heidi's best chance for a match will be with her brother and sister.  But in case they are not a good match, the hospital will search the available donors in the program for a match.  It's painless to sign up--all it takes is a swab inside the cheek.  I've been on the registry for 15 years now and have never been matched, so it's not a certainty that you would ever have to go through the donation process.  Don't delay; sign up today!