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Two years, two months ago my family, my parents and my in-laws all went to the rodeo in Ellensburg, WA (yee haw!). My mom couldn't walk ten paces without becoming winded (this, of course, had been an issue for some time, but she hadn't told my brother or me). That week she went to her doctor, who sent her to a specialist, who diagnosed her with advanced stage leukemia. She was told she had 6 months to live.
She went and found better doctors in Seattle (Go go UW medicine and football!!!), they put her on a drug which they said usually put the cancer into remission for about 9 months. During this time they started looking for a bone marrow match. Nine months past and the drug kept working, after a year we hoped and prayed that it would just keep working forever. Then it stopped working, and the doctors couldn't find a suitable bone marrow match.
The team of doctors shifted to Plan B--and experimental procedure transplanting stem cells using cord blood, coupled with a reduced regimine of radiation and chemotherapy since at my mothers age (almost 70) the standard standard rad/chemo had a significant chance of killing her outright. She got a 5 out of 6 blood match from a donor in Australia, and a 4 of 6 locally. On August 10 of this year she and my dad moved from the ancestral estate in Aberdeen to an apartment in Seattle and began the radiation and chemo. On August 17 she received the stem cell transplant. No doctor would give her odds of this working, or if they did, she didn't tell anyone. Talking with some friends that worked in that field, they guessed she had about a 20-30% chance of success.
The typical side effects of the treatments, have been thankfully fairly mild. Some hair loss, the occasional losing of her lunch. The most severe has been muscle atrophy due to the anti-rejection drug and just plain loss of energy. She can't walk up stairs anymore.
During all this, she has had legions of people praying for her and much help from friends keeping her home and gardens kept up.
Yesterday she became a statistic: cancer survivor.
Her blood and bone marrow are now clean. She gets to go home just before Thanksgiving.
She has a long road to recovery and doing her PT will be a particular challenge for her, but she is going to recover.
Praise God and blessings on all who prayed for her, treated her and took care of her. And bless all cancer researchers and those who have the calling to work with the sick and dying.
I can't even really believe it yet. Thank to everyone here who prayed or sent happy thoughts her way when I posted the start of this journey 2 years and at least one Glade iteration ago.
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