I went to hell and back… to say the very least!
It was definitely a rough time with bone marrow transplant #2. As expected, but I didn’t expect SO many side effects from the chemo immediately following transplant. I was supposed to be in the hospital for only 4 weeks and ended up staying 8… But let’s start from the beginning.
This is about 2 weeks overdue as I got a call from my radiologist on my way home from my 2.5 hr MRI for my spinal cord, neck, and brain.
To refreshen everyone’s memory, on April 1st, 2022 – I found out that my leukemia had returned. I had 4 tumors in my brain, 1 in my neck, and 1 at my bra line(the largest and why I knew something was wrong).
In my previous blog post, I talked about my last few days and weeks leading up to my relapse.
Downstairs to the ground floor I went to get an MRI of the middle of my back. My appointment time was at 4:30. Good thing I brought a book! I got to Penn just before 1pm.
This was the first time I had gotten an MRI. I changed into the double gowns – one open in the back, and one open in the front, so that you’re fully covered. Take all of your jewelry off, keep your shoes on until you go in for the scan.
Read moreWell, well, well… 15 months later I’m finally writing a new blog post because, as majority of you know, my Acute Myeloid Leukemia returned for the 4th time – but for the first time in my spinal fluid, and it caused some tumors to grow. Let’s back up a bit. Did I have any symptoms? How was I feeling leading up to being diagnosed? How did I know that something was wrong?
On Sunday February 14th, my phone was blowing up with texts from friends and relatives asking if I saw the CBS Sunday Morning segment on Suleika Jaouad and her new book called “Between Two Kingdoms”. I did not know about the segment.
I looked up her book and what it was about after a few people had told me it was about a woman named Suleika Jaouad, who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in her early 20s just like me. She also had a bone marrow transplant.
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