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Diagnosis

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Submitted By starryevenings
Words 323
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Two friends, Matt and Tammy, had a night out on the town planned, as they had just experienced an emotional month. Their good friend, Rick, had recently been dealing with medical issues. Matt was feeling very physically fatigued, irritable, and had shortness of breath, which led him to schedule an appointment with his family physician. Dr. Hemo had been Matt’s family doctor for several years. In order to identify the etiology of the symptoms Matt was experiencing, Dr. Hemo referred him to the hematology-oncology department at his local hospital. The cause of these symptoms needed to be determined to reach a diagnosis. The phlebotomist drew the first blood specimen for the CBC, which indicated a problem. The results of the complete blood count showed that Matt’s blood count was below normal ranges. The MCV and MCHC tests showed that Matt’s RBC count was low. The low red blood count pointed to a diagnosis of anemia. After this series of blood tests, it was determined that he had cancer in his bone marrow and blood. Matt was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Matt started taking tyrosine kinase inhibitors to stop the cancer cells from growing. He takes the TKIs orally, and has experienced side effects including nausea and diarrhea. The feeling of unease often leads to emesis. Matt’s body experiences dehydration from the vomiting and the frequency of the loose bowel movements. At this time when his body is lacking the essential water and salts, he becomes very weak. Bone marrow transplantation is the next step that will be taken, to replace the damaged bone marrow. Matt is coping with his recent diagnosis with CML, but his friends are having a difficult time accepting the news. Matt’s friends are devastated, as they have heard of many cases of carcinoma ending in tragedy. They had older family members diagnosed with many forms of cancer, but no one so young and close to them.

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