Allyson is
Blood Cancer United

In November 2016 I was tired. TIRED. I had a 20-month-old and a 4-year-old, had just come off the busiest month of the year for work, and I figured I was tired for no other reason. But then tired became not having the energy to take care of my 20-month-old. Tired became going to be my best friend's wedding and needing to lay down in between steps. Shower, lay down. Makeup, lay down. Hair, lay down. Get dressed, sit for a minute. Walking a long hallway seemed daunting. And then carrying my son from my car at a gas station to the restroom inside on a road trip was too much. I thought I was anemic as I was on blood thinners for clots that I had about 10 months prior. I took an iron supplement. I got an iron prescription. Still nothing. I had a cold that WOULD NOT END. A period that WOULD NOT END. I slept. A lot. And then one day, I couldn't even make it through a meal at a restaurant without wanting to go back to sleep. I went to the ER in Atlanta where we were for Thanksgiving. I thought I needed a quick blood transfusion and would be back to normal. I was wrong . . . kind of.

I did need a blood transfusion. But I also "didn't have two platelets to rub together." Nor did I have white blood cells to speak of. I spent the night before Thanksgiving in the hospital. Thanksgiving morning is one of my favorite times, a "tradition" of waking up at my parents’ house, a tradition that had only been broken one other time when I actually lived just 20 minutes from them. My mom stayed with me. My family came in waves to visit the next day. The doctor told me I needed a bone marrow biopsy. When my mom whispered to her, asking if she thought it was cancer, the doctor said she doubted it, probably a virus. The next morning, I was rolled into prep for my biopsy, got it done, and was half asleep when the phone rang next to my bed. Chris answered. It was the doctor. She confirmed it was leukemia. We didn't know more than that, but she would be there soon.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) stage 3. It was 30 days inpatient until we got it into remission. No kids in the unit. Gowned visitors. But I was in the right place at the right time because Northside Hospital Blood & Marrow Transplant Unit is one of the best, and I got their docs. It was a LONG 30 days, followed by another 10 days across the street at a different hospital to remove a clot from my heart, then another six weeks staying with my parents, including a two-week break back inpatient as they tried to figure out why I was still clotting (so weird that clotting is a side effect of leukemia when you have no platelets.) Lots of chemo treatments, a couple more bone marrow biopsies (wouldn't wish these on my worst enemy), and lots of doctor visits later, I finished my treatment in August 2017. In November of 2019, I was declared cancer-free by my doctor.

About 12 years before my diagnosis, my father participated in The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training (TNT) event, raising money for LLS and running in the New York City marathon.  At that time, we had no connection to blood cancers in our family. Little did we know, the organization he was raising money for was the same organization doing drug trials to turn my diagnosis from one that did not have good outcomes to one that has a 90% cure rate. 

Today is 5½ years post-diagnosis. I am here to watch my boys continue to grow healthy and strong because of LLS research and exceptional doctors by my side.