Search Results

Gena

I am 28 years old and a two-time cancer survivor. My life has come full circle many times, and I am here to share my story to inspire and help others to heal themselves.

My story begins when I was 3½ years old. I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). At the time, I was treated at Schneider's Children's Hospital, now Cohen's Children's Medical Center. This was a long and tough battle with rounds of chemotherapy. I almost did not make it. Thank God I had the most loving support system which helped me get through the battle.

Israel

I am 39 years old, a father of two boys and one girl ― Abdias, 12 years old; Ester, 10 years old; and Ben, 9 years old ― and a husband to my wife Erin for almost 14 years.

On August 14, 2021, I suffered a serious knee injury playing basketball which inadvertently led to revealing I had a blood cancer called chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Suddenly, instead of prepping for knee surgery, I was sent to the hospital and received an official diagnosis on September 9 after a bone marrow biopsy and what felt like a million tests.

Follow-Up Care

Those who have been treated for MDS are encouraged to:

Signs and Symptoms

Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is often detected during a routine blood test before an individual has any symptoms.

The signs and symptoms of ET are linked to high platelet counts that cause the development of a thrombus (blood clot). The symptoms include:

Resources for Survivors

Use this Survivorship Workbook to collect all the important information you need throughout diagnosis, treatment, follow-up care and long-term management of a blood cancer.

Kari

I am writing this in 2022, but I never would have believed when acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) struck my daughter in 2013, that it would feel like we were back at step 1.

Steven

My name is Steve. My purpose is to give others hope and the possibility of tomorrows. I am a leukemia survivor, specifically myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Today, one year after my bone marrow transplant, I am 100% cancer-free!

Krisha

I started noticing some things were "off" with my body. In early August 2022, my daughters noticed several large, unexplained bruises on my legs. I just brushed them off as being clumsy or running into something. Then, while lying in bed reading to one of my daughters, my lower jaw and lip went numb, like when you have Novocaine. I got up and moved around, and it got better. This started to be a daily occurrence, and about a week or so later, I woke up and could not open my mouth. I thought I had TMJ, so I called my dentist. He had me come in and looked at my mouth/jaw.

Peter

My story starts a year and a half before diagnosis when a serious body surfing accident led to blood tests showing significantly low red and platelet counts. My primary care physician (PCP) retested several times in a short period, and when the counts came back closer to normal, she chose to stop her inquiry without scheduling further tests or redoing the same test, say, six months later to see if the lower values were actually correct. There was no discussion of what it would have meant if the lower counts were, in fact, an accurate representation of my blood health.

Supportive Care and Disease Complications

Supportive (palliative) care for myeloma helps manage the complications of the disease and the adverse side effects of the drugs used for treatment, including: 

Aaron

Aaron was taken to urgent care after he developed a rash that didn't seem right. The next day, he was admitted into The Children's Hospital, and 36 hours later he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Jane

In 2008, I retired from teaching art, mostly because I was feeling tired all the time and didn’t want the program I was running to suffer because I couldn’t keep up. I figured it was old age. I was enjoying my first full year of retirement when I woke up with a backache. After two months of tests, in July 2010, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a treatable but not yet curable blood cancer in the plasma cells of the bone marrow. 

Micah

My wife was diagnosed with Pre-B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in June of 2018. For nine months I watched her battle her cancer and her treatments. I learned so much about what families with a cancer patient go through ― the uncertainty, the anxiety, and many protocols and precautions to keep your loved one safe. It was a very scary time for us, full of unknowns. But we lived each day at a time. The uncertainty brought us closer together and allowed us to live every moment with gratitude. My wife was in full remission before the end of the year, and we had so much to celebrate!

Jean-Paul

This is the fourth anniversary of Jean-Paul being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We had just gotten back from San Francisco, and Jean-Paul got scratched by Oskar. We thought we would go to the emergency room to get an antibiotic shot and maybe a tetanus shot and then go to dinner. Instead, we spoke to the doctor, and 1.5 hours later the doctor had already reached Jean-Paul’s oncologist (this is Jean-Paul’s second diagnosis of cancer, the first was testicular cancer in 2016). They set him up to start chemo the next day. We were shocked and did not believe it.

Varad

I graduated in 2021 with an engineering degree and landed a full-time analyst position at a promising startup. My future was brimming with plans, and by 2022, I was gearing up to leave India for the United States — a dream I had nurtured for years.

Luz

My name is Luz, and my story begins in a magical town in Mexico where I spent a wonderful childhood surrounded by my family. As the youngest of nine siblings, I learned the value of support and connection, values which continue to guide me today as a happily married mother of three beautiful daughters. For over twenty years, Chicago has been my home.

Bryana

Hello everyone! My name is Bryana and in September 2022, at 23 years old, I was rushed to the hospital unable to breathe. I recently went on a trip to Las Vegas and had gotten sick while there, but never expected what was coming for me next. I was initially diagnosed with pneumonia but when I had a CAT scan done, the radiologist noticed an abnormal 5cm mass in my chest pushing on my bronchial tubes. My oxygen levels were low and my CBC came back abnormal, I had a severely low amount of WBC which brought up suspicion.

Deb

Mathura

Mya

It was the end of my senior year in high school, and I was thrilled to be admitted into NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts to achieve my double bachelor's. I worked hard. Despite the many restrictions of the pandemic, I volunteered, performed virtually, and worked two jobs all in preparation for a bigger life.

Thomas/TJ

This picture is of my brother and my son. Both fought valiantly from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Hodgkin's lymphoma respectively.

It started in 2009 when my son, Thomas came home from his freshman year in college. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and was treated right away. He went through the regular protocol which lead to the next level and then trial drugs, radiation, and autonomous stem cell transplant.

Debra

In October 2011, while at work, I fell after attempting to sit on a chair, and I went to the emergency for x-rays. As soon as the technician began the process, he entered the room to ask if I had scoliosis. I replied, "no" and he proceeded with the exam.

Christy

I fell in love with distance running in 2010 while training for my first marathon as a member of Team In Training, raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Since then, I have completed five full marathons and one ultra-marathon (49K). I started getting into mountain running in 2016, and aspire to run some mountain races here in Alaska, including Mount Marathon in Seward!

Kiernan

On Oct. 24, 2011, my husband, Rob Smith, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He had a bad case from the beginning. He was FLT3 positive and had poor cytogenetics. He received so many rounds of treatments I can not keep count. He battled for 11 months and following a bone marrow transplant, which was part of an experimental trial in Seattle, he died in September 2012, just four days after his 40th birthday.

Ann

After being in remission from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) for 12 years, things were going well for me. Then a day after my 48th birthday, I was diagnosed once again! It hit me really hard, and I could not seem to get past the words from the doctor, "You have_____."