About Meir Wetzler <B>M. D.</B> Expertise Leukemia acute and chronic; from chemotherapy to transplantation. Done clinical and translational research on leukemia for the last 10 years at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Question QUESTION: Hello
My father has recently passed away from AML. I have so many questions but i am not getting any answers, they say that the internet has all the answers but I can vouch that is not true.
A lot of things happend to my dad, his count acually went up to 9, and within days of him being informed he had weeks to live he was getting very confused, we no longer could have a conversation with him. he had a op on his leg and he sometimes would say that he was in pain there, and the doctors would hike up his patchs up and up so that at the end he was on 125micrograms. he was also on morphine at the end. he sometimes halucinated. he lost his apertite and would not drink anything, no matter how much we tried to coax him. he slept so much.on his second to last day he couldnt talk, we think maybe since his mouth was dry, it was strange he was then complaining that he wanted to eat and he was very thirsty but the nurses said it was too much of a risk for him to eat or drink? his last day he was gargling and one of our friends said that is sometimes referred to as the 'death rattel'. we were also told that the week before him passing he was 'plucking' but when i asked why and how this happends ( how is this related to his illness) they said they dont know. I want to know why all this things were happening, how it was happening. was his brain getting cancer? not enough blood? I wonder alot about this and I would really appresiate your answers. thank you
ANSWER: Dear Sheridan,
I am sorry to hear about your dad. It is unclear from the message whether your dad was treated or not and what did you mean by the words "his count actually went up to 9." Can you please provide me with more information? It will be helpful to know your dad's age.
Thank you, Meir.
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QUESTION: he had received 3 rounds of chemo, went into remission for about 3 months then got diagnosed terminal. When i say his count went up to 9, we were told every time he had a transfusion that his count was at 7, then all of a sudden he went up to 9, we were told that a normal count was at 12.he was 69. Thank you
Answer Dear Sheridan,
Thank you for explaining. I guess that by mentioning "counts" you refer to "hemoglobin."
Taking all into account, It seems that his disease returned relatively quickly (only 3 months after achieving remission). AML that returns that quickly is indeed a tough disease to get rid of the second time around. Therefore, his physicians felt that it was terminal. The events during his last days are representative of several concurring events, including morphine and morphine-like drugs, and maybe even AML in the brain.
From you description, it seems that you were able to spend time with him during his last days and I only hope that memories other than those last days will help you through this difficult time.
