My 87 year old father has AML and underwent a \"gentle\" form of chemo about 3 weeks ago and tolerated it very well.  Due to his age he has refused futher treatments as well as transfusions/platelets.  He appears to be going down hill pretty quickly now and has started to complain that it is very hard to swallow both foods and liquids.  Is this a probable sympton of the AML progressing or something else?  He is in no pain otherwise.  Thank you.
Hi, Thanks for writing in. Chemotherapy is recommended treatment for AML. As he tolerated the chemotherapy well, it might have worked for him. Chemotherapy involves giving the patient certain medicines that can control the cell proliferation and arrest the cancer. Chemotherapy side effects are usually observed 3 to 4 weeks after treatment. Your father might be having the side effects of chemotherapy right now. This needs to be confirmed by doing a complete blood check and then confirming if his counts have gone down. The symptoms of difficulty in swallowing is most likely due to weakness arising from the chemotherapy session. Please get his general condition assessed and abnormalities attended to. Please do not worry.