Linda,
So glad to hear your mom is doing better. Unfortunately, my mom, who was diagnosed with T PLL in March (she was 81) died July 12th. The official death certificate said pneumonia and acute respiratory failure. Although, they never found out during her 6 days in the hospital, what was going on in her lungs. they did various tests and all came back negative. Her campath treatment seemed to have been very successful (11 weeks on it) because her last bone marrow biopsy showed no signs of leukemic cells. Unfortunately, her WBC went way too far down, to 2 down to .5. Her platelet count was also very very low. She had received a couple blood and platelet transfusions and the counts went up a little for a day and then dropped back down. We had expected her to pull through and be around for awhile longer as she had been extremely healthy before and didn't even so much as take any aspirin ever.
I also strongly support your comments about doctors. She had a great doctor and team (Dr. Susan O'Brien) at MD Anderson in Houston, but unfortunately her ongoing oncologist doctor in San Antonio believed that he was god and didn't need to consult with others even though they had experience with the disease and with the treatment. I also want to encourage people to NOT go to North Central Baptist Hospital in San Antonio. They did some innapropriate things and had a doctor that did something that was not good...
Please keep us all posted on your mom's progress, and how you are doing.
Thanks,
Robin