I was having severe pain in my left side (didn't know it was my spleen). Went to a doc who did a cbc. I also was extremely tired, and before the results came back I began severe diarrhea, so was extremely high in white count and low in red, of course. They called me on VALENTINE'S DAY 2005 to say get to the E.R., my primary had been notified and they were going to admit me, cuz I had leukemia, they were sure of it. Sure did ruin my Valentine's Day!!! After sitting in the E.R. for 3 hours they said, "You are getting exposed to all these germs, not good, go home and wait for us to call you when we have a room." So I did, call came two hours later. Then after being in hospital for a day, hospital doc comes in and gruffly says, "You have acute leukemia, will put you in isolation for 30 days with high chemo, let you rest at home for 30 days, and then come back again for more. You will likely die within a year." I'm trying to wrap my mind around all of it. Was not scared, felt like he was talking about someone else. The next day same doc comes in, says, "You have CML, you can go home today!!" No apology, no nothing. They made a mistake, but why did they care? They didn't! I sure was grateful for the proper diagnosis.
18's, Susan "Look among the nations and watch; be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you." Hab. 1:5 -----Original Message----- From: Richard H <[email protected]> To: cmlhope <[email protected]> Cc: ICANDOALLTTC <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, May 17, 2014 12:19 am Subject: [CMLHope] Re: let's all write about when we were first dx with leukemia I went to mt PC Dr. to invistigate uncontrolable itching. He refered me to an allergist. The allergist gave me some ceam to releive my intching and pain. He had my blood tested and showed a WBC of about 30,000. He called my in about 2 days and ask me to come see him at his office. He asked me to go to my PC's office as he was certain I had some sort of leukemia. At my PC's office he recommended that I see an ONC asap. They made the call and had me in that office in less than a week. I had my BMB in less than 3 weeks, and four weeks later I started Gleevec. The rest is my CML journey. Richard H. On Wednesday, May 14, 2014 2:50:46 PM UTC-5, [email protected] wrote: Hi Millie, did the onc find it through a blood test and how did they treat it in the beginning? Did you have a BMA? Were your blood counts really high? Just wondering. Blessings Jeanie<3 In a message dated 5/13/2014 8:08:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: I was alone when I got the news about my leukemia. My husband never has gone with me. Oh, he drove me there a few times, but never went in and met my doctor or anything. It was difficult for me to do this all by myself, but I did it. I was there for my 5 year check up for breast cancer. Thank God I had an Oncologist, so it was just a matter of dealing with the news. I already had this doctor for 5 years, so it did make it a lot easier. Chris goes with me when he can, and I appreciate that a lot. I can't always hear that well, and he is my ears when we go. It's also nice having someone with you. I will write again soon, Jeanie. I'm going to go sit in my recliner and stitch for a while. Lots of hugs and prayers, Millie ----- Original Message ----- From: ICANDOALLTTC via CMLHope To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 6:56 PM Subject: Re: [CMLHope] Fwd: Fwd: Fw: Love Story With a Dog That's a great story, Marty. I don't have dogs, but my daughter who lives alone with her children bought a German shepherd as a puppy. He is very protective, and I don't think anyone would want to mess with her family. When I was visiting her last year, I had a choking spell which I get sometimes if water hits the wrong spot in my throat. I couldn't catch my breath, and all of sudden the dog jumped up and bopped me on the chin. It was his way of trying to help me. It was so cute. Thanks for sharing your story on the discovery of your leukemia. Here's mine: I had flown to Ohio to be with my daughter, and I was sick while there. I thought I had eaten something bad. I got home, and was taking my usual daily walk, and I got so tired I could barely stand up. I came in and told my son how tired I was. He told me I had to go to the doctor. I said no, because I never liked going to doctors and only went in cases of emergency, however he insisted and off I went the next day. When I was waiting in the waiting room, my heart was pounding very hard and fast. The doctor who was my PCD took all my vitals and said he was going to take a blood test. I told him I really didn't need one but he insisted. Luckily he has a blood draw right in his office, so they took the blood and told me the results would be back the next day. The next day he called with the bad news. He told me my platelets and wbc were way too high to be normal and that he was making me an appointment with an onc he knew. I told him I didn't think it was serious but he had already made the appointment. So off I go to a new doctor I had never seen before. He also had a blood draw center in his office and the first thing he did was have my blood tested. It seems my platelets were in the millions and wbc way high. He wanted to do a BMA right then and there, and me not knowing anything about them, agreed. He decided right then and there that I had leukemia. I went into the office without my son, but he was waiting for me. The onc told me I sure was brave to be coming there alone. I must have been in shock because I still didn't realize what her was telling me. Then he told me I had to go right to the hospital. Now I knew things were getting serious. He said he had bad news and good news. The bad news was I had leukemia and the good news was that we now had Gleevec to treat it with. I was put in the hospital and was having my blood cleanse daily. It wasn't doing any good but they were doing it anyway. Finally I was sent home and I started on Gleevec. I was also on Hydrea and another drug, still my counts wouldn't come down. It took a while but finally they started coming down. The whole episode was a nightmare when I reflect back on it. More later-- Jeanie<3 In a message dated 5/8/2014 8:45:52 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Hi Millie and everyone else, Just so you know I had all of my tests this morning and am now resting at home. It really took a lot out of me but I am still doing as well as can be. My heart is still doing what it is supposed to and although they removed ten polyps from my colon the doctor will be sending them off for pathology but said that she thinks everything looked good. Hopefully she will be right. Millie I read about the dog Lucky and it brought back memories to me. I had an adorabile dog named Sniffer. She had the face of a baby raccoon, and would follow me where ever I went. She was like velcros sticking to my leg whenever I would walk her. She and I were extreamly attatched. I had adopted her from some obusive people when she was only nine months old. As soon as I opened my car door she ran in as fast as a lightening strike. She was mine and I was hers for the next fifteen years. When I had to get my bone marrow transplant I was gone for over seven months and she would cry most of the time. She knew something was wrong but didn't know where I had gone. So, after all of these month of being away from my home, when I finally got back home she was not allowed to stay near me because I had a very low immune system. I even had to have my own bath facilities and a whole bunch of other things that would not be able to infect me. This had gone on for several more months and when I was finally able to have my immune system working again, I still had to ware a mask and gloves. So I slowly went over to her and spoke in a very gentile voice. She at first was afraid to come over to me, and would run and hide under the bed. I then came to find out that since I had the bone marrow transplant my scent had changed and since I had the mask on she didn't recognise me. it took another couple of weeks for her recognise me and once she did then she was velcrose again. After she died, my heart was broken, and I looked for another dog for almost two years. Shelly and I would visit shelters every weekend and nothing... Funny how things work out. A friend of mine by the name of Jay (he is in my book) he had cancer and I would always spend time with him when his wife was at work. Well one day there is a stray german sheppard sitting across from his house. She was filthy and smelled from gasoline. She had a bad cut on the back of her rear leg with dried blood on it. Everytime I tried to approach her she would show her teeth to me and growl. She was about twenty five feet from me so I got down on my knees, clasped my hands into a cup like shape and gently started speaking to her. It took about fifteen minutes before she would come to me, and when she did she just put her snoot right into my hands. I mean this dog could have really hurt me if she wanted to but she was very gentle with me. I took her right to my vet who had to put a muzzle on her and he cleaned and dressed her wound then had her cleaned up. He also warned me that since I had small children it wouldn't be a good idea to bring her home with me. It seemed that she immeadiately bonded with me because as soon as the vet removed the muzzle from her she came right over to me and started to gently howl to me. He was simply amaized at what he saw. So, I know that animals have this sort of sense of who we are. I brought her home with me and introduced both of my young children and wife to her. We had her for 12 years and she was very protective of my wife and children. If anyone ever would try to harm any of us then she would have given her life to protect us and as it happened she did protect our home. The burglar almost lost his legs after she attacked him. If we were home at the time she would have probably killed him. So, what does this all have to do with Leukemia? Well, my first dog Sniffer would always come over to me and would smell me at my right hip. I was kind of taken back by her behavior because I didn't know what to make of it??? I later found out and then associated it. Several weeks later my right hip started to swell up and it was really hurting me very much. It got so bad that I went to a doctor who failed to take a simple CBC blood test but rather gave me pain killers and an anti inflamatory. Had he taken the blood test it would have come back with a huge white blood cell count. I went home but the pain got much worse and my hip was now twice the size it should have been. My wife Shelly was in our home in Pennsylvania because I had to work and she was off for the summer, and I would come up on the weekends. At about three am I felt as if I were dying so I called my friend to take me to the hospital. I didn't want to call 911 because we lived in a duplex and I wasn't able to climb down the stairs to be able to open the door so they would have probably have to break it down, while my friend had the keys. And that is how my Leukemia started. Now if I had only known what my dog Sniffer was doing by smelling my right hip? Animals, especially dogs have this uncanny sense that we just can't understand because we speak "different languages" I guess that in her own way she was telling me that something was wrong, it was I that just didn't understand what she was trying to tell me. 18's, Marty On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 10:47 PM, houtz <[email protected]> wrote: > Thought this was worth sharing. When I first got Cancer my little > dachshund wouldn't leave my side, and when I was in the hospital, she'd > cry her heart out when I came home. I believe that they sense things > better then people do...Love to all, Millie > > > > > > This really is a great story! > [image: cid:39699F9DDE2E4740963F588FF14D329A@FranPC] > *Lucky Dog.... * > > Anyone who has pets will really like this. You'll like it even if you > don't and you may even decide you need one! > Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named 'Lucky.' Lucky was a real > character. > Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would > warn > their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help > himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would > forget > and something would come up missing. > > > > > > [image: cid:7F5E61FCF1C74CE1A4018C72CE4D93FB@FranPC][image: > cid:DC0BD295928B4651B7D480B00FC2F881@FranPC] > Mary or Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the > treasure would be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite toys. > Lucky > always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that > his > toys stay in the box. > It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told > her she was going to die of this disease......in fact; she was > just sure > it was fatal. > She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders. The > night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with > Lucky. A > thought struck her....what would happen to Lucky? Although the > three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary's dog through and through. > If I die, Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won't understand > that > I didn't want to leave him! The thought made her sadder than thinking > of > her own death. > > The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had > anticipated > and Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his > evening walk faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining > and > miserable. > Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived > home, Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to > her > bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to > nap. > Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called.. > It > made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed. > > When Mary woke for a second she couldn't understand what was wrong. > She > couldn't move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But > panic soon > gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem. She was covered, > literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! > While she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the > basement bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life. > *He had covered her with his love.* > Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, > walking further and further together every day. It's been 12 years now > and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky. He still steals treasures > and > stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure. > > > > [image: cid:C705D58F084C427A8B925699F537DC71@FranPC] > Remember.....live every day to the fullest. Each minute is a blessing > from > God. And never forget....the people who make a difference in our > lives are > not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most > awards. They are the ones that care for us. > > If you see someone without a smile today give them one of yours! Live > simply. Love seriously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest > to > God. > *A small request* > > All you are asked to do is keep this circulating. > *Dear God, I pray for the cure of cancer.* > *Amen* > > All you are asked to do is keep this circulating, even if it is only to > one > more person, in memory of anyone you know that has been struck down by > cancer or is still fighting their battle. > > [image: cid:7C648867D9824FC6BBF2FD936F5E39BB@FranPC] > > > > > > > > <http://www.avast.com/> > This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! > Antivirus<http://www.avast.com/>protection is active. > > -- > -- > [CMLHope] > A support group of http://cmlhope.com > ------------------------------------------------- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "CMLHope" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "CMLHope" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. 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