Why we are donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
September 28, 2004 ~ The day our world exploded.
After having chest pains, John went to the ER on September 11th. The diagnosis was "chest wall strain", and they sent him home with pain killers and instructions to rest. About a week later there was blood in his urine, so it was off to the Dr.'s. The Dr. put him on antibiotics and sent him home. Around midnight that night, John was having severe chest pains, so it was back to the ER. After running many tests and putting in a catheter, the ER Dr. said she was going to admit him to find out what was going on. She also said it was good that he decided to come to the ER that night, because his kidneys were in severe distress and probably would have shut down before morning. Around 2pm that afternoon of the 28th, John was down having more tests down when the Oncologist came into the room, introduced herself and told me, "What we're dealing with is Acute Myelogenous Leukemia". She followed that diagnosis with a ton of statistics and information. The only information that really stuck in my brain was that they wanted to start chemotherapy the next day, he would be in the hospital at least 6 weeks, and if we delayed the treatment he would be dead in less than a week.
After doing extensive research on holistic methods of treating AML and taking to several holistic doctors, they all agreed that he was past the point where holistic methods would have a chance to help, so we agreed to going forward with chemotherapy. It took two rounds of chemo to get him into remission and then they did a third consolidation round. At this point we decided not to have further rounds of chemo, but to maintain the remission through holistic / herbal remedies. On May 31st. he had his six month blood works that are still normal! (YEAH!).
Now that we have experienced the physical, emotional and financial devastation that cancer wreaks on the families it touches, we are determined to do anything we can to help others who are fighting this fight.
We'd love to hear from you! Please e-mail Deb@tglass.net !
Peace & Blessings to all!
John & Debbie
