I was first diagnosed in July 2015. The doctors in Joplin kept saying I had strep (which I did, at first) and it never got better. Appointments after appointments and I kept getting this. Despite the several medicines they had me on, I was still not feeling good. Nothing helped. Finally my friend forced me to go back to the hospital, where I had been four days later, and I was FINALLY diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Unfortunately, they did not have any doctors to treat it there.
I feel they only treat breast cancer & other cancers like this that are “more common”. When I first got the diagnosis, I was stunned. I went from working two jobs to barely being alive. My chest was hurting, felt like an elephant was sitting on it, breathing was down to 71%, throat hurt, couldn’t eat or drink. I was on six liters of oxygen and my breathing still wasn’t coming back up. I was shipped to St. Louis (SLU hospital) where I was in ICU for almost a month and on a ventilator. I ended up with pneumonia on top of everything and the medicine they had wouldn’t work.
My team of doctors actually had found a trial medicine that worked. I was finally released to regular floor from ICU. But because I had to learn how to walk again I wasn’t able to come home. I had to stay in St. Louis and go to TRISL. My last round of chemo for this encounter with AML was in December. I had celebrated my one year mark, and in September my doctor, who checks my blood here in joplin, found that my cancer had came back. He warned me to pack bags because he suspected it came back. Needless to say, my team from St. Louis had me come back to see and indeed it did.
Today, after all this & nearly dying more than once, I’m alive and had a transplant using baby cells. I just had my one year biopsy, and they called me that my results on they had and what they sent out, both came back as NO sign of disease.
Tiffany
AML Survivor
