Acute Leukemia - not wanting chemo

starjarus
starjarus Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Leukemia #1
I am curious, my bestfriend has found out he has acute leukemia. Now I don't know the specifics but can someone please explain to me why some people like himself would not want to do chemo? He wants to give up. Just like that. I cannot voice my own opinion to him, he is very self-destructive right now. Could counselling be an option? Even that would be hard to bring across to him. Both my stepfather and father have died of some sort of cancer, my brother is in remission from Hodgkins Disease, so here I go again, now my bestie :(

Comments

  • tiggermafia
    tiggermafia Member Posts: 8
    #2
    Hi Starjarus
    I dont know
    Hi Starjarus
    I dont know much about your situation but your friend needs to realize that Acute Leukemia is one of those cancers that HAS A CURE!! there is no need to give up.. i dont know what to tell you in terms of what your friend should do but counselling or speaking to the doctors about chances of survival, which I am hoping is very high, might help to ~

    I am so sorry about your situation and wish you all the best!
  • charlybrn
    charlybrn Member Posts: 7
    #3
    If he was just recently
    If he was just recently diagnosed, he's probably in shock. You might encourage him to contact The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)and ask to be connected to a survivor who went through treatment for the same form of leukemia. They can match him with someone of the same age and gender at time of diagnosis (First Connection). Talking to someone who has already gone through it can be a big help. You can request a match for yourself as well. They can get pretty specific in the search for a match. You can also request literature and find out what teleconferences are coming up. There are several types of acute leukemia so you could start by finding out what form he has; lymphocytic, myelogenous, etc. and enter a live chat with a specialist at LLS to better inform yourself so that you present an educated argument. Depending on where you live, there may be a blood cancer specific support group that you could volunteer to attend with him. When you contact your local chapter, be sure to ask about support groups.

    www.lls.org
  • mtbikernate
    mtbikernate Member Posts: 31
    #4
    charlybrn said:

    If he was just recently
    If he was just recently diagnosed, he's probably in shock. You might encourage him to contact The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)and ask to be connected to a survivor who went through treatment for the same form of leukemia. They can match him with someone of the same age and gender at time of diagnosis (First Connection). Talking to someone who has already gone through it can be a big help. You can request a match for yourself as well. They can get pretty specific in the search for a match. You can also request literature and find out what teleconferences are coming up. There are several types of acute leukemia so you could start by finding out what form he has; lymphocytic, myelogenous, etc. and enter a live chat with a specialist at LLS to better inform yourself so that you present an educated argument. Depending on where you live, there may be a blood cancer specific support group that you could volunteer to attend with him. When you contact your local chapter, be sure to ask about support groups.

    www.lls.org

    absolutely counseling should
    absolutely counseling should be an option. He's going through a tough time.

    I am a recent survivor of acute myelogenous (aka myeloid) leukemia type M2 with a translocation between chromosomes 8 and 21. I had some unusual complications and was in a really really bad sort for awhile. But it didn't take long for the leukemia to go into remission. I'll be at my 1yr of remission date in a couple of months. I say that the leukemia (and treatments) made me take about a yr off from graduate school. Just a hiatus.

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