Oh my gosh, I’m just smiling ear to ear hearing that your mom is walking a round the hospital. My oncology team and transplant team swore that is what had be recovering so quickly from all my medical drama. I even got other patients to join in. We’d have the teams clapping as we hobbled by with our IV’s To Go. 😂

Going forward, yes, your mom will most likely be on some type of maintenance treatment monthly. Perhaps not the in-hospital chemo but an oral pill to keep the cancer cells from replicating.

If your mom’s treatment is every 28 days she can expect a lowering of blood counts every time and then a return to ‘near normal’. But it also depends on the meds she’s taking. The pill form she’s taking may not impact her as much as the IV chemo. That’s a good question for her hematologist to answer. There are also meds that can be given to help boost her white blood count after chemo.

A little insight into AML. AML is a tricky adversary. Depending on whether there are mutated cells which have caused the process to begin can have a lot to do with success in treating. Some of the cells have a way of going dormant during chemo, hiding out in the body or even morphing to evade chemo. That makes them extremely difficult to completely eradicate because they can come out of dormancy and start in again.
So, with the usual method to treat AML, the initial chemo rounds are very aggressive. The first round is Induction therapy (in hospital) which knocks down the volume of cancer cells. Every 28 days for the next 2 or 3 consecutive months are chemo rounds called Consolidation. Those are also done in the hospital and are meant to kill off any re-emerging cells and get the patient into a remission. If they have no mutations, then some patients are put on maintenance meds and eventually, may be able to stop them.

If there are mutations involved which would make longterm remission unlikely, that’s when a bone marrow transplant is done. Ultimately the only known potential cure for AML is a bone marrow transplant though it’s not a guarantee. I had my BMT 4 years ago and no longer need any medications.
I also have friends who have had a transplant and still require monthly maintenance. So everyone is different.

In your mom’s case, she’s not able to have the aggressive chemo nor is she able to have the transplant. However, it’s been shown to be very effective in older patients who can’t tolerate the heavy chemo to take this milder approach. The monthly drug often has minimal side effects but keeps the cancer cells from replicating.

Having blood transfusions is a part of AML so don’t be concerned. These infusions of blood will keep your mom’s red blood cell count higher resulting in more oxygen circulation in her body. She may require platelets occasionally as well.

Living with AML will have your mom receiving routine blood work to check her numbers to make sure she ‘isn’t a pint low’ and to be vigilant for blast cells in the blood and to make sure the meds are doing their job.

AML will have her checking her temperature daily to make sure she doesn’t have a fever. Anything over 100.3 she should call her hematology oncologist office. They would want to make sure she isn’t experiencing an infection anywhere.
She will be susceptible to illness and infections. So masking will be important along with hand sanitizer, avoiding crowed areas, etc. But the important thing is, your mom should still be able to have a fairly normal life…just different. Again, with out this treatment her time with you would be much shorter.