Project Michelle » Leukemia Information

Five Ways You Can Help Leukemia Charities and Other Cancer Related Organizations Fight Cancer

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:46:57 +0000

When it comes to helping others affected by leukemia, you can do many things that don’t involve donating money from your own pocket. Let’s face it, some of us just don’t have much money to donate. But don’t let that deter you from helping when you desire to do so.

Here are a few ideas you can use to help leukemia charities and touch those who are affected by the disease.

1. Donate To Leukemia Charities For Research – The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are two places that you can donate money that you raise with fund raisers. It will take time and organizational skills on your part to have a successful fund raiser but the results are worth the effort. A few fund raiser ideas are:

bake sale

spaghetti dinner

sandwich sale

yard / garage sale

raffles

beaded bracelets (children will enjoy taking part)

craft sale

2. Donate Blood and/or platelets – Cancer patients undergo blood and platelet transfusions due to
the effects of chemotherapy. Donating your blood and/or platelets is a priceless gift you can give that only requires a little time.

3. Donate Hair – If your hair is long enough you can get it cut and donate it to organizations that
make wigs for cancer patients that have lost their hair due to chemotherapy. Hair loss can have
an emotional effect on cancer patients and having a wig made of real hair can help make them
feel better about their appearance.

4. Relay For Life – This is an event organized by the American Cancer Society. You can form
a team and help raise money through fund raising. Participating in the event will also show
your support for those affected by cancer. Fund raising and forming a team will again take time
and organizational skills.

5. Send Cards – Another way to touch the lives of people affected by cancer is by sending cards
to lift their spirits. There are organizations that provide the contact information to do so.

These are just a few ideas of ways you can help those affected by cancer. For more ways you can help please visit http://www.leukemia-cure.com/leukemia-charities.html.

Fight Leukemia with a Pre-Sale Ticket Car Wash Fundraiser

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:59:30 +0000

One of the most devastating cancers of all is Leukemia and the costs to fight it are immensely expensive. When a child has leukemia it is even more devastating threatening to cut a life short. Many times communities will rally together to have fundraisers to cover the costs. Generally the whole community and several fundraisers can come up with the funds with a couple of large donations. To attract large donors, it pays to have the public relations and show a consciousness effort to reach the goal for the treatment. Every year bone morrow transplants costs in crease. One of the fundraisers you might wish to consider is a car wash fundraiser. A pre-sale ticket car wash fundraiser can make significantly larger dollars than a normal car wash fundraiser. Let’s discuss pre-sale ticket strategies for a moment.

PRE-SALE TICKETS

You should seriously consider selling presale tickets for your car wash. There are a lot of advantages in pre-selling your tickets such as:

You know about how many people will come to your car wash ahead of time

66% of the ticket buyers never show up but you’ve already got the money

If it rains you’re washed up but not washed out

You will also have use of the money in advance even in the event of rain. Your rain date might be three weeks later yet you have most of the money in your coffers now. Important monies that can go towards your goal for the treatment.

Let’s take one of our 1990 car washes. It was for the local high school band. There were one hundred plus students in the band. The average student sold twenty tickets at $5.00 each. The presale ended up about $10,000. That in it self would be great, but it gets better. The day of the event we raised $985.00 in drive-ups. Some of the girls on the drill team waved tall flags and others held poster board signs that brought the cars in all right. We washed 408 cars. Wow, were we tired! We had two solid lines of cars at least fifteen deep all day long. 201 cars were drive-ups with no presale tickets. With tips included that made up the $985.00. That left 207 cars worth of presale with tickets. But you say, “How can that be?” 207 times $5.00 = only $1,035.00. That’s right. Since our lines were so long a lot of people didn’t claim their tickets or never intended on coming in the first place or forgot or had some thing else to do that day. I believe it was a combination of all these reasons. Whatever the reason, the money went to a good cause. We’ve had many many fundraisers that have been equally successful over the years.

Now someone will have to typeset these tickets and have them printed. There is probably someone in your group who is a graphic artist or really good with a PC or MAC computer. They’ll do fine. The tickets should be eight to ten on a page. You should print them on colored paper so they are not easily duplicated. You should pick a color that matches with your church, club or school’s colors. Have the tickets cut. Put the individual tickets into piles of twenty. Put a piece of cardboard or poster board the exact size underneath each stack. Buy some rubber cement. Put about ten stacks of twenty tickets on top of each other and put them in a vice. Paint the rubber cement on the left side of the ticket book and let dry for one hour. Repeat until you have enough booklets for each member. You might want to print another dozen booklets just in case. If the tickets are selling fast, you don’t want to run out. That will break your momentum.

You should have frequent ticket sales progress meetings with the people selling the car wash tickets. That way, if sales aren’t meeting goals you can help motivate members or reorganize the group.

Tickets can be expensive to print. Ask a local print shop to advertise on the back and become a sponsor in exchange for half price or free printing of the tickets. Most print shops do binding so you may be able to trade for that and save you the time and aggravation of binding the ticket books yourself. Print shops will do a more professional job at binding than you can do on your first time trying. Professional tickets are more presentable and look more official when selling to customers. This will help your group in their selling efforts.

When a community unites in a common cause miracles can occur, all this positive energy and mind power may significantly help the child win their battle with leukemia. Work together and work smart to raise the funds needed and the awareness required to rid the world of this terrible problem and save your local VIP from leukemia. Think on this.

Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Marriage, and Children – It Was Meant To Be

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:15:40 +0000

Once diagnosed at age twenty-five with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, I was certain my love life would be on the back burner during my two and half year protocol. Living life as a cancer survivor and hoping one day marriage and children may be a part of my future seemed more like a fantasy than a reality.

I found myself going out on one or two dates with someone and end what could have been a potential relationship on purpose. What if he found out I was stigmatized with cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and ran for cover? How would I feel? How devastated would I be? Could I handle that kind of rejection based on my medical situation and physical appearance? Marriage? Children? These questions were far from superficial and barraged my mind. They were real, right down to the core. It was the fear of rejection, humiliation, and thoughts of what gentleman would want a girlfriend bald, gray, and going for cancer treatments?

I had a great wig and with some make-up no one was able to tell I was struggling to survivor cancer. I was twenty-five years young going to the bars, parties, and any and every other social function imaginable. The cancer didn’t stop me there. It just kept me from entering into a relationship; actually it was me who kept me from entering into a relationship. During that time, I gave the cancer way too much power. Until I met Ronnie. I never would have expected that within nine months, post the non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosis, love was about to bloom and change my life completely. Yes, it was meant to be.

When Ronnie first asked me out on a date I was extremely apprehensive. He wanted me to let go of feelings of insecurity that I allowed to control me as I was on the path toward surviving cancer. He saw how I managed my cancer diagnoses, and was inspired by watching as I was capable of maintaining a smile on my face every time he saw me. I was relieved by his reaction; nevertheless, at that time, I couldn’t bring myself to get past the vulnerable state. As a result, I refused to go out with him, thinking I was doing him a favor. Mentally and emotionally I still had my love life on hold. That went on for about six months; however, during that time we became the best of friends. We went to the movies together, out to eat, golfing, just enjoying each others company.
Regardless of the non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Ronnie remained persistent and helped me to see that I deserved to be happy in every aspect of my life.

He knew I wanted to be with him, just as he wanted to be with me. It was so surreal that someone like him would accept me as a girlfriend, hairless and with a blotchy gray complexion. He gave me the confidence to be secure with our relationship as it progressed further, finally culminating into true love. He became my rock and never asked for anything in return-just my health and happiness. We married on our four year anniversary, and sixteen months later we had our first of three *miracle* children.

We feel just as strongly about our relationship, if not stronger than before. We were given the opportunity to have children – something the doctors were certain would never happen. The cancer protocol was supposed to put my twenty-five-year-old body into menopause. The love and appreciation I have for my husband and children will never be taken for granted, not after living with cancer. Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Marriage and Children ~ it was all meant to be.

Raising Eyebrows to Cure Leukemia – Six Personal Factors in Determining One’s Outcome

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:32:52 +0000

Six years ago, my husband Devin was diagnosed with Acute Lymphacytic Leukemia. In the midst of Devin riding the roller coaster of relapse and remission, I began to write. I had no other outlet for what I was feeling at the time, nor did I have the energy to seek one. Three years later, Devin succumbed to the disease though we were the ones who were supposed to “make it.”

To begin with, we had the love and support so often associated with success in cancer diagnoses. When Devin was first diagnosed, we were living in Oregon, 2000 miles away from our home state of Ohio. Devin’s parents had recently retired and lived in Oregon only three hours away. My parents too were retired and spent weeks at a time with us, just to be near. Socially, Devin was well-liked, strong, healthy and generous with his time and energy.

Second, Devin and I had been astute enough, and financially successful enough, to invest our salaries and bonus monies in life insurance policies and other long-term strategies. Eventually, due to his rank within the company and his past earnings, the disability checks we received during Devin’s treatments allowed us to balance our checkbook.

Alongside those first two aspects, we had a reason to get up in the morning and his name was Davis. Despite his premature birth, Davis had turned out healthy and became our inspiration for everyday living.

Next, Devin was being treated under the watchful eye of Dr. Keith Lanier in Portland. Later, after moving back to Cincinnati due to a job consolidation, Devin had been referred to the practice of Dr. Philip Leming. When the insurance company considered dropping this physician’s group from their coverage, Dr. Leming wrote a persuasive note to convince the company otherwise.

In conjunction with the above, Devin had access to stellar insurance coverage. When we did embark on a bone marrow/stem cell transplant, we were presented with the option for Devin to undergo this process in the Pacific Northwest at a “blue chip” facility – Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. As Dr Leming put it at time, “That’s what they do, and they do it well.”

Finally, we had attitude. Devin maintained a positive outlook on life, this disease, and how this could help make him a stronger person – I quote from his diary – “God has a plan for me in all of this – and each day (it’s only been 5!) I learn more about what the plan might entail.”

Outside of the disease itself, the above are crucial factors in the successful treatment of a cancer patient. But there are instances when insurance, caregivers, money, love, and medical care simply do not matter. Ours was that instance. The only thing that would have mattered at the time was a cure.

It took six years of writing a book, I’ll Be in the Car, to accept the fact that we had all the means for success and in the end, it did not matter. I’ll Be in the Car is the story about Devin and me. But more so, about how our lives were impacted. I wanted others to witness that we fought over money, in-laws, child-rearing and lawn-mowing, in the midst of fighting leukemia. I wanted others to know even during Devin’s down days, we held bridal showers, went on vacation, and watched movies and read Tuesdays with Morrie, before the notion of Devin dying had even crossed our minds.

Two weeks after Devin died Davis and I began our journey of fundraising for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by attending our first Light the Night Walk, surrounded by more than fifty family members, friends and neighbors who were still in shock and needing to grieve. Over the years, we continued our participation, walking with friends, sisters and brothers and finally just Davis and me.

Two months ago, I married a wonderful man whose first wife also died of cancer. He brought three motherless daughters into our marriage. The other night as a family, we had been out spooking the neighborhood, leaving tricks and treats and laughing all the way home. Later, while putting my son to bed, I saw that he had been crying. “Davis what’s the matter?” I asked. And he just burst out, “I didn’t get to say goodbye to Dad.”

This is six years later. And that one moment sends me backwards in time, wishing there had been a cure. If we cannot have a cure, if we cannot raise millions of dollars, then we must raise eyebrows while finding other means of comforting those affected. We must tell the story of little boys who still miss their dads, of young women who still grieve for a mom I can never replace. We must talk about mothers and fathers who still yearn to see their son walk through the door at Christmastime. And we must be the voice for friends and lovers, husbands and wives whose light we carry inside.

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Defeated With PH Balance and Nutritional Therapy

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:24:10 +0000

As a person diagnosed with CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) since 2001, I’ve had my eyes trained on Google Alerts and on the web in general, regularly looking for breakthroughs, both conventionally and in the alternative medicine arena. Many people who are diagnosed with CLL are told to hold off on any treatment, as the disease often progresses slowly, and any improvement with treatment is not permanent. Worse yet, the course and aggressiveness of the disease can change at any time. Patients are told to “watch and wait.” This is not a happy way to live.

No role models. The sad truth is that, until this past January 2009, I could find no reference (not one) of any person who was cured of CLL through any kind of traditional medical — or alternative — therapy. The only exception are those who have been cured by way of a bone marrow transplant (BMT). Unfortunately, many people do not survive the procedure. It is extremely risky. Worse yet, a patient can survive the BMT and still have CLL, or develop CLL again at a later date.

The five-year time-line. Despite all the research and trials, there is still no conventionally-sanctioned therapy (chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, etc.), short of BMT, that can effect a cure. Doctors give patients the hope for a complete remission of five years with some of the available therapies. Not all patients achieve complete remission in the first round of chemotherapy. And the chance of success, measured by five-year survival, decreases with each new form of conventional therapy. Not an encouraging picture. This situation has been evident to me since 2001, when I was forty-six and first diagnosed. Who wants to hear about a five-year life plan when you’re forty-six? Not me! While there have been some promising conventional “breakthroughs,” the survival rate remains pretty much the same today.

The search for an alternative. My search for an alternative treatment, or treatment protocol, has been equally difficult. I have been able to find testimony on the web of leukemia patients who have become cancer-free (acute myelogenous leukemia or acute lymphocytic leukemia), but no such luck for CLL. At best, there were stories of people who had held off their CLL with the controversial laetrile (apricot seed extract). But no one with CLL had become cancer free. I was discouraged, but I never gave up the search, or my attempt to discover a blueprint to good health.

The 2009 breakthrough. In January of this year, my Google Alerts revealed an article written by Steve Freier, a man with CLL who recovered to full cancer-free health. He regained his health by having his root canals removed and also by taking coral calcium. Because of his experience, I am in the process now of having all my mercury amalgams replaced with safer porcelain fillings. To find information about his recovery, type “Steve Freier” and “CLL” into Google.

Breakthrough #2. In April 2009, while searching for information about infrared saunas and its effect on leukemia, my husband came across this website: http://www.CLLDefeated.com. It is the story of Hessel Baartse, of Adelaide, Australia. He has totally defeated his CLL by means of removing his root canals and mercury amalgams, and by drastically altering his diet and supplementation, with a concentration on restoring his pH levels to a healthy balance. He credits his dentist, www.ericdavisdental.com for his complete recovery.

There are finally role models for CLL recovery. What used to be a complete mystery now is a challenge with a blueprint for success. There are now at least two cases of men who have beat the odds and defeated their CLL by means of mercury amalgam and root canal removal, nutritional therapy, and pH balance. The further good news is that this program is likely a blueprint to health for people with many other chronic health issues, including cancers.

The future. Because of the Internet and the speed with which we can share information, more people will be able to find a way to recover their good health through alternative means.

A Client, Not a Patient

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:34:46 +0000

I won’t be able to change the nomenclature of the medical profession but I refer to myself as a client, not a patient. By definition, a patient is “One who receives medical attention or treatment.” The archaic meaning was “One who suffers,” from the Latin verb meaning “to endure.” A client on the other hand is “The party for which professional services are rendered.”

Catch the nuance? A patient is the object of medical care; a client is the subject of medical services. In language as in life, an object is passive, a subject is active.

A patient complies with the experts. A client consults the experts, then follows what seems the best advice.

A patient might complain but would never contradict an authority. A client will ask questions and weigh alternatives before deciding.

A patient goes where sent and does not change doctors or clinics. A client tries to find the best physicians and facilities realistically available.

A patient asks “What?” A client asks “Why?”

Being a client takes a lot more work. I have to educate myself about my condition and treatment options. It’s a daunting but doable task thanks to the Internet. There are plenty of reputable sites with reliable information the average person can understand.

Oncologists know a shipload more about lymphoma than do its sufferers, but they don’t know everything. It’s impossible to keep up with the ocean of new information. A dialogue with a well-informed client could suggest new possibilities to a thoughtful physician.

When I see Dr. Kurbegov, my oncologist, I’ll ask if radioimmunotherapy is an option for my type of lymphoma based on an article I read in the New York Times. I’ll ask about any clinical trials for which I might be a candidate, especially those sponsored by the MD Anderson Cancer Center where Dr. Kurbegov was a Chief Fellow.

I’m not trying to play doctor or impress anyone with my research skills. I’m just trying to understand my cancer and to be proactive in eradicating it. After all, it’s my life.

Learn And Live With Cancer – Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:07:08 +0000

Cancer. The C-word that changed my life forever! The specific diagnosis was non-Hodgkins lymphoma and the protocol consisted of two and a half years of combination chemotherapy with a month of radiation. After hearing the doctor utter those words, all I could hear thereafter was la la la la la as my jaw dropped. It was a deer in the headlights moment. Cancer?! No way; I’m twenty-five years old. They’re wrong! But they weren’t and I had to deal with it. Once I regained control of my articulators I demanded explanations. Why me? How could this happen? What do I do? Am I going to be alright? What, exactly, is non-Hodgkins lymphoma? The questions went on and on. Some of the answers were provided thoroughly, many were vague.

Introduced to cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma

When I was first introduced to cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, I had so many worries, concerns, fear, and visions of worst case scenario. However, as time went on and I began to understand what I needed to do to regain my good health, it wasn’t as bad as I originally imagined. There were many ups and downs and the protocol was extremely difficult. Nevertheless, I have to be honest and say that when I reflect upon my time living with cancer, there were so many great things that happened as a result of the diagnosis, experiences I never would have had, people I never would have met, all of which changed the direction my life was going in, all for the better. As a cancer survivor, I learned the importance of gratitude – never taking anything for granted. As a non-Hodgkins lymphoma survivor, I have learned much about the medical field and the different types of cancer. I’ve learned to accept who I am as opposed to others projected image of who I am. I’ve learned there IS a silver lining while living with cancer and life thereafter as a cancer survivor. And I’ve learned never to give up, whether it’s a cancer diagnoses, or any other challenge life throws my way. I’ve become STRONGER for having lived with cancer.

Living with cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma

These are just a few of the intangibles I’ve learned and lived, as opposed to slapping myself in the forehead yet again and thought, live and learn. Cancer made me stronger mentally, physically, and spiritually. In the beginning I never would have imagined I’d be saying this…I am thankful for having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and the two and a half years I spent living with cancer.

Canine Leukemia

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:32:53 +0000

Leukemia is one type of cancer that affects the blood. This disease is characterized by a significant increase of the leukocytes, popularly called white blood cells.

The first symptom is a large number of these cells in the blood marrow or even in the circulation. Leukemia is a result of a genetic malfunction, a mutation that happens inside the bone’s marrow. This disease has several types. It is classified taking into consideration the type of the white blood cells that are involved and also the way in which the disease is progressing.

Leukemia can derive from the bone marrow and it is called myelogenous or granulocytic leukemia and also lymphocytic leukemia when it involves the lymph nodes.

Leukemia disease can either be chronic or acute. It all depends on the kind of white cells that are affected. The chronic one is named chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The CLL in pets like dogs and cats has a lot of similarities with the human disease but still some major differences too.

The ALL, or acute lymphoid leukemia is a disease that progresses quite rapidly. A few of the symptoms include fever, anemia, random bleeding, loosing the appetite, swollen lymph nodes, panting, anxiousness, vomiting, pale gums, shifting limb lameness, lack of coordination, some infections that appear because of the week immune system. All these symptoms can cause death if the disease is not treated.

At a clinical examination, if the dog has fever or a bigger than usual spleen or liver, it is a good sign of the disease. Many mature animals develop the acute lymphoid leukemia rather then the young. This is a difference from the human disease which is quite common in children. Another important fact is that this disease can cause some ocular lesions in dogs.

The chronic leukemia has many cancer white cells that are affecting the body’s ability to fight the infections. The disease progresses slowly and it is fatal. It suppresses the immune system and then the bone marrow fails to function. The bag cells then infiltrate the other organs. The disease easily spreads into the blood, the lymph nodes, liver or spleen and into the central nervous system. The disease doesn’t create solid tumors or other solid masses. The death can be quite painful.

Discovering the leukemia can be done ding a simple blood examination and then, if there are suspicions, a bone marrow analysis.

How Strong Are You?

admin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:11:28 +0000

As children many of us thought strength was only measured in physical terms; how many pounds you could lift, how big your muscles were, how successful you were in an arm wrestling match. As we grew older we came to realize that strength was also mental; how to resist peer pressure, how to stay home and study for that exam even though all your friends are out partying. For many of us, our physical strength gets tested more often than the mental so we can’t categorically answer, How strong are you?

How many of us would be able to go through chemotherapy with a smile? How many of us would handle losing their hair with panache? How many of us would be able to face your mortality head on and have absolute faith even through the darkest hour that there would be a tomorrow? The strongest person I know was able to do all that and more. She barely touches 5’5, she cannot bench press half her weight and she would probably lose in an arm wrestling match but strong she is.

She was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at the age of 26, three and a half months ago. From the beginning she was the one telling you “Don’t worry, I’m going to be fine”, she was the one to make you smile, help you feel better. One of her doctors calls her “Sunshine” and that she is. We’ve know each other more than 10 years, she was always the more flamboyant one, she stepped into a room and charmed everyone in seconds. The Yin to my Yang, I prefer being an observer and she loves being the center of attention.

In late 2007 as my 26th birthday approached we decided we would have a Thanksgiving get together with all our friends and celebrate the official cross over to late-twenties-only-a-few-years-from-thirty event. By that time everyone was scattered across North America and we would have a weekly teleconference with up to four ladies on the phone giggling and talking for hours on end. Our tickets were booked, our topics for drunken discussion were written, our bags were half way packed and we were ready. Our plans were forever changed.

On November 1 my best friend was diagnosed with Leukemia. You think … LEUKEMIA?! BUT SHE’S ONLY 26?! THE DOCTORS MUST BE WRONG! In our naivety we think we are immortal, think our age somehow protects us … how wrong we are. November 1 – diagnosis, November 2 – immediate treatment. It’s all happening so fast, you turn to Google for answers, you search for “Acute Myeloid Leukemia” and read a medical journal that says ” … if left untreated the person can die in a matter of weeks”. Oh. My. God. Your worry doubles, yet you’re still grateful it was caught it in time. Thank you Lord!

You start hearing words like chemotherapy, biopsy, transfusion, transplant and you can’t imagine what your friend must be going through if you are so devastated. And yet her spirit still shines like a beacon … Absolutely amazing. You experience first hand the pain she’s going through, you hear her bed rattle because she is uncontrollably shivering as a side effect of her medication, you count at least 7 different cocktail of medications being fed to her intravenously, you see her lose 30 pounds in 6 weeks, you rub anti-itching lotion on her body because yet another medication causes her to itch all over and yet her absolute belief in her healing never wavers. Even through her tears, she trusted. Even in her pain, she believed. And that is STRENGTH.

For many the worrying and what ifs would compound their problems, the doubts would stifle their spirit; the depression would increase their pain. I don’t think I have that kind of strength, I would like to hope that I do but having lived a fairly ‘test free’ life so far, so I can’t say with absolute certainty that I would. My friend’s situation has opened my eyes, made me more compassionate to others’ situation. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel sympathy but it never hit you at that deep level I guess because you couldn’t relate. Unfortunately it takes us or someone close to us going through such a situation for us to know.

My friend is not out of the woods yet. Her cancer is currently in remission however she needs to have a bone marrow transplant done, as the results of photo-genetic tests show the probability of her cancer reoccurring is very high. She has a long road ahead of her but thankfully she is now out of the hospital. The search for a donor is on, she has three siblings and none matched. When we are healthy we never realize how something as small as a pint of our blood can change someone’s life. Become a donor.

My friend’s experience has taught everyone around her to value the seconds, minutes, hours. Value your relationships … one small deed can make the difference in another’s life. Her lesson to us is to prove that mental fortitude can conquer the physical. She continues to smile through the pain and hold firm in her belief.

My Experience With Hairy Cell Leukemia

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:37:23 +0000

Being told I had leukemia was a shock and I don’t mind admitting I burst into tears in the Consultants Office.

For me and my family, the most important thing was to get the treatment needed to fight this cancer of the blood. I hadn’t been well for about eighteen months before the diagnosis, I felt very tired and unfit.

During a lovely holiday in Bermuda, I started to feel as though I had got the flu coming on and I had to go to see my doctor when I arrived home in England because by this time I couldn’t breath very well. I had actually got legionnaires disease – which to put it simply meant that I had pneumonia, the TB I had as a child showed up on my X rays, and I was very ill for 6 weeks. I was taking 8 different antibiotics daily to fight this off.

Interestingly, my husband was fine – no symptoms at all – I realise now that my white blood cells were already being attached by the cancer and this in turn brought my immune system down.

It was over a year after getting legionnaires that I knew something was wrong because I found I needed to go to bed in the afternoon due to fatigue – I had only to knock myself lightly and I would have a big black bruise.

After visiting my doctor again, who referred me to the local hospital, where tests were done which included blood tests and a sample of my bone marrow was extracted from my hip bone – not a ery pleasant experience I have to say,the diagnosis came in that I had hairy cell leukemia, it’s called that because the tumors look like they are covered in tiny hairs under the microscope.

The chemotherapy was simple – basically the chemicals needed to kill off the cancer cells are fed into you intravenously – I firstly had a liquid injected prior to the chemo, this was to stop me from being sick – thank goodness it worked. I was also lucky that my hair did not come out in clumps – I had severe dandruff but that was all.

I had to have 5 two hour chemo sessions Monday to Friday and I felt very weak by the last session, I was given some needles to inject myself with, these contained a solution described by the doctor as Fertiliser for White Cells. I did the injections and found I was getting rather a lot of discomfort in the hip and thigh bones – this was caused by the injections as the solution was stimulating my bone marrow and aiding the clean new white cells to grow (sorry I cannot explain it in more medical terminology) and that was what caused the discomfort. It was a small price to pay to get my blood clean again.

I have been very lucky, my sort of leukemia is treatable and as long as infections are avoided after and during the chemo, a full recovery after 6 months is perfectly achievable.

I have been in remission now for three years, visit my consultant every six months and he says my blood is very healthy, so I thank god for that and of course the medical profession who are just fantastic.