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.
I remember the day of my pre-op knee surgery appointment vividly. On the morning of August 30, 2021, everything seemed fine at 11:30 a.m. as I came out of my general practitioner’s office. He said I looked good and would sign the preoperative papers pending a blood test which he foresaw no issues with. I left his office and went about my day at work. At about 5:30 p.m. on that same day, he called, asked me if I was busy, explained to me that my blood tests came back abnormal, and told me I needed to stop what I was doing and head to the hospital. I thought this must be a joke and almost hung up, but he insisted. I needed to go get checked at the emergency room, and he would call the hospital to let them know I was on my way. While worried about his concerns, I thought this would be a fluke, after all, I felt great. That night at about 11:00 p.m. in the emergency room, I heard words that have marked my life when the emergency room doctor said, "Does anyone in your family have blood cancer? We still need to do more tests, but we think you have CML." Up until that moment, I had never put those three letters together for anything. Now it's a commonly expressed acronym in my language. At the moment, I had no words, everything froze. I felt a rain of bricks showering me. I couldn't help but think that I would not be there for my kids and my wife. Every dream was somehow seemingly snatched early by "cancer." Nothing had yet changed, but everything had changed in that single moment.
Post-treatment, the treatments and hospitalizations have been exhausting. I've had complications with my thyroid and colon which thankfully have been resolved. On January 4, 2022, I was finally healthy enough to have surgery to repair the injury I suffered in August. The road to recovery will be a long one, and in addition to the CML treatments I will undergo for the rest of my life, I now have 10-12 months of recovery time following my surgery.
All of this was, of course, completely unexpected and had shaken my family. We are hopeful and taking things one day at a time. We've had some bad and good moments. And through it all, I remind myself that battling cancer is not linear, that my family, friends, and loved ones are what matters and the reason to try and keep living. And that cancer doesn't own my life, I own it. I encourage myself to focus not on what I cannot do at the moment but on the little things that I can do, on the blessings I have. I don't have to stop living life just because my normal has changed.
One of those things is spending time with my kids. One of the things we do together is watching the WWE show Smackdown. Recently we watched WrestleMania. In it, Roman Reigns wins two world titles. Shortly after the show, I read an article about Roman Reigns’ battle with CML. It was encouraging to read his story, and that is also how I first heard about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). I was immediately encouraged to find a community of people who are living life fighting blood cancer. Immediately the loneliness and hopelessness, the mental fight became a little easier.
So, I would encourage others to share their journey as it will encourage someone, just like sharing my journey will encourage others, and reading about others in their journey will encourage me.
Israel
chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
