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AML & Climbing - a random info thread. 22-Aug-2022 At 3:06:23 PM IdratherbeclimbingM9

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AML & Climbing - a random info thread.

“I'm doing OK, as many people don't make it into the 2nd chance club”...
~ IdratherbeclimbingM9 ~ 12/01/18
(Quote from CABGs & Climbing - a random info thread.)

~> I now need to update this quote to; “many don’t make it into the 3rd chance club”.

Chockstone has been pretty quiet for a while now (mea culpa!), and there’s a couple of threads I’ve been meaning to reply to, though I hope you indulge me my tardiness as I’m good at distraction lately.

Acute Myeloblastic Leukaemia:

I’ve recently been diagnosed as having it.

I’ve been told that left untreated I’d be dead inside 4 months.

A sobering thought indeed, while I still have many adventures remaining on my agenda; not to mention the inconvenience to the climbing partners and motorcycling partners that I have lined up for said adventures…
;-)

AML is a cancer that starts in the bone marrow where blood cells are made. It affects specific cells and grows quickly.

In AML the marrow makes unhealthy stem cells called blasts, which crowd the marrow and it can’t make enough healthy cells (haemoglobin, white cells and platelets).

Symptoms include tiredness, weakness, weight loss, fever, night sweats, infections, easy bruising and looking pale.

It is diagnosed using blood tests along with bone and marrow biopsies.

In most cases the medical profession doesn’t know what causes AML. There is usually a mutation in the genetic material of growing blood cells.
There’s no way to prevent AML and you can’t catch it or pass it on.

Some statistics from the Leukaemia Foundation …
* 0.8% of all cancers are AML.
* 80% of people diagnosed with AML are aged 50+
* 1042 Australians diagnosed each year with AML.
* Average age of diagnosis is 64.2 years
* Risk of diagnosis at 75 years of age is 1:486 for women, and 1:320 for men.
* Risk of diagnosis at 85 years old is 1:254 for women, and 1:161 for men.

I’m currently in Royal Melbourne Hospital Haematology Ward undergoing chemotherapy treatments, and have been told I’m likely to be here for 6 months…

I was patient transferred from Albury Base Hospital to here a month ago.
The process of my being diagnosed with AML was convoluted to say the least and I’ll elaborate more on that later, but in the meantime I’m starting this thread as a potential information source to other climbers who might end up with a similar issue, and also as a lifeline to the outside world to help me keep my sense of perspective while undertaking this adventure without a compass or topo-map, though I do have plenty of belay partners for it!

Side effects of chemotherapy are not always pleasant, and there will likely be days ahead when I’m not going to be up to replying, but I will catch up as and when I can.

Knowing the vagaries of Chockstone I’ll also break my posts up into short bursts, as many trip report style posts get auto-chopped by the system anyway.