Grandma Needs Prayers

My mom got diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) 4 years ago.  The week Tyler was born.  She has done really well and been more or less asystematic with occasional shingles and such from a weak immune system. She was able to live a relatively normal life.  

About two months ago she had horrible back pain and was diagnosed with a herniated disc which has improved with time. And two weeks ago she started having double vision.  After seeing specialists, they decided to do a spinal tap to see  if her leukemia was present in the cerebrospinal fluid.  It was present  which is pretty rare and doesn't have a great prognosis without treatment.  So tomorrow my mom will be going into surgery to get a permanent catheter placed in a canal in her brain to start chemo on Monday.  

This internet describes it better: 

People who have leukemia in their cerebrospinal fluid, or who are at high risk of having leukemic cells migrate to the spinal fluid, receive chemotherapy directly into the cerebrospinal canal. This is known as intrathecal chemotherapy. 

• Intrathecal chemotherapy is necessary because drugs given via IV do not sufficiently penetrate into the cerebrospinal fluid or brain and, thus, cannot kill leukemia cells there. Insufficient penetration of drugs into the cerebrospinal fluid results in uncontrolled growth of leukemic cells in the cerebrospinal fluid. Sometimes the therapy is inserted into a sac placed in one of the larger fluid-filled areas of the brain, a ventricle. The sac is known as an Ommaya reservoir, so named after its developer. 

So keep her in your prayers.  She is having a pretty hard time with all of this, as most of us would.  There are not many cases detected where CLL is found in the CSF.  With that said, the majority of CLL patients that have an autopsy do indeed have CLL present in their spinal fluid.  So maybe it was a blessing in disguise that her eye was attacked and they detected the cancer in her CNS.  I believe this cancer responds well to chemo and most patients go into remission.  Doctors also told her that this type of chemo doesn't have the horrible side effects of other chemo drugs. She will be receiving chemo twice a week and we are hoping she is able to live a pretty normal life during the treatment.  

We will keep you updated and in the meantime pray that she will respond to treatment and stay optimistic through it all.