Leukemia

Who can get leukemia?

Child Leukemia

Symptoms

Fatigue, pale skin, infections, fever, easy bleeding or bruising, weakness, shortness of breath, coughing, bone and joint pain, weight loss, loss of appetite, swelling in various places, vomiting, rashes, gum problems, headaches, seizures, balance problems, and abnormal vision

Effect on family and child

Personal experience

Pam Bertrand's Story

How did she take care of her daughter by herself? What sacrifices were made?

Story/Movie

My sister's keeper

Explain how it effected each member of the family and everyone who was close to the matter

How it brought the family together? How is love shown?

How seeing the choices make me feel and the amount of change I had come to my life

Adult Leukemia

Effect on life

Story/Movie

Funny People

How watching this made me feel and effect on my life it had

How it effect main characters life and how he decided to change his life around

Symptoms

Easy bruising or bleeding, fever, tiredness, shortness of breath, weakness, and loss of appetite

What are treatments for leukemia?

Chemotherapy

Takes a long time because there are stages. The stages are:

Induction-to kill the leukemia cells in blood and bone marrow, consolidation-kills leukemia cells that don't show on tests, and maintenance-prevents leukemia cells from growing again

Stem Cell Transplant

Problem with this treatment is that there has to be a pefect match of blood and even then there can be a bad reaction to transplant.

Clinical Trials

This type of treatment has its risks because all clinical trials are just an attempt to see if the new medication produced will be more effective than any medication that has come before

Radiation Therapy

Can cause issues to other parts of the body that weren't before effected by any cancerous cells

What is leukemia?

This is a type of blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow

Bone marrow is the soft tissue in the center of the bone

This causes uncontrolled increase in white bood cells

Prevents for red blood cells to be made

Attacks bloodstrem, lymph nodes, brain, and spinal cord

Two major group types:

Acute

Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

A large number of immature white blood cells that take over the normal cells found in bone marrow which prevents healthy blood cells from being made

Treatable

Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Starts in the bone marrow and causes the cells that would have been white blood cells to be the cancer cells

If gone for 5 years more than likely cancer free

Chronic

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

A rapid growth of immature cells that are found in the bone marrow

Not found in many people, so hard to treat

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Slow increase of white blood cells called B cells which spread through the blood and bone marrow causing the bone marrow to fail

Death