Cancer. The word seems to immediately instil dread and panic to all who hear it. The very thought of it touching us or someone we love can cripple us with despair. My family felt all of these after my cousin, Amanda Moody, only 25, was diagnosed with cancer July of 2012. As she herself states, “when doctor’s first told me I was in complete shock. I couldn’t even break down so I could stay strong for my family. One of the first thoughts I remember thinking was how? With being so young and healthy overall, how did I get this?”. More specifically, my cousin Amanda had been diagnosed with APL Leukemia, or acute promyelocytic leukemia, a form of blood cancer. Acute promyelocytic leukemia is also a form of acute myeloid leukemia, it effects the bone marrow where blood cells are…show more content… Depending on the type and severity, different treatments can be utilized, like surgery or radiotherapy. Metastaic cancers are ones where the cancer is spread throughout the body instead of being localized in one specific area. Because Leukemia is cancer of the blood, it is a metastaic form of cancer. This leaves chemotherapy as the best treatment option according to most doctor’s, due to how broad a range the chemo effects. My cousin Amanda explains the details of her chemo treatment for APL leukemia, “I had 4 different types of chemo treatments. I had one session in the hospital that lasted about 2 weeks, following 50 treatments of arsenic chemo which took about 3-4 months, then I had a treatment called daunirubicin 6 times over a period of 2 months and 112 chemo pills every month for a year.” Because of the length and aggressiveness of these treatments, the chemo drugs travel the body’s bloodstream and accumulate over time, destroying and damaging the rapid growing cancer cells, but also damaging other rapidly growing cells in the body, like hair follicles, or bone marrow. Hence the commonly dreaded side effect of hair loss in those undergoing chemo.
