Leukemia Survivors and Their Stories Bring Hope

These leukemia survivors and their stories will inspire you and bring hope.

Hope......the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. That is exactly what these leukemia survivors and their stories will give you.

When I read survivor stories they stir up an awesome feeling inside me. HOPE is what I am talking about. I get so excited and I think, "Yes! God has answered their prayers!" What an amazing feeling that is!

With in four months, she relapsed and was sent home to "enjoy the time she had". We took her for experimental treatments across the country and, unfortunately, her kidneys shut down and dialysis was started. After she was stable we were air ambulanced back to Philly (we were in Minnesota for experimental therapy). They basically wanted us to have family close by for when she died. Well, my family, friends, church and friend's churchs all got on the horn, so to speak, and EVERYBODY prayed for a miracle. At the hospital, they waited for months but the cancer was NOT coming back and she was NOT dying as they expected!!!

Today Madelynn is still cancer free (AKA - leukemia survivor...awesome!). The experimental treatments were never continued because they gave her kidney failure and maintenance therapy was not tolerated by her body...but she never got sick again. Today, she is a happy, healthy, 9 year old who, despite her treatments and anticipated delays, is in advanced reading and the top reader in her 3rd grade class.





Chantel's Leukemia Survivor Story

Another great leukemia survivor story that I want to share with you is about Chantel. Here her mother shares her heart touching story.

I want to share my story. I have a 12 year old daughter who was born with Down Syndrome. With DS can come many health problems, one of them being Leukemia. Well my daughter was born with a hole in her heart and that had to be fixed when she was 8 months old. We almost lost her a couple of times from that, but she made it through.

We thought all was going well until she was about 17 months old and suddenly she had what we thought was a rash covering her body. Well mixed in with the rash, she had little bruises called petechiae. Her doctor ordered blood tests but nothing unusual showed up so we were just going to watch her. The petechiae continued off and on for several more months and every time we did blood tests---nothing unusual. Five months of doing these blood tests and no answer as to why she kept getting the bruises as well as a continuous ear and sinus infection and being extremely tired, her doctor decided it was time for bone marrow tests to be done.

So a couple of weeks later after searching for a pediatric oncologist in our state and finding one about 5 hours away from us, we traveled there and had her first bone marrow test done or at least they tried. The doctor couldn't get any marrow out as she had what they call "empty marrow" which means she was in the beginning stages of Leukemia probably. But she wasn't sure and wouldn't be sure until she could do another bone marrow test which she figured would be at least 2 months before she would see us back. In the mean time we were to go home and continue getting blood tests done to monitor her CBC counts and if anything changed drastically then we were to return for more tests. Well 2 weeks later her counts dropped dramatically, so off we went for more bone marrow tests, this time they had no problem getting marrow and it showed AML. She was admitted to the hospital, had a hickman catheter placed in her chest and chemo started 2 days later. She was put on a continuous drip for 4 days. She had to stay close to the hospital for the first 6 weeks of treatment in case of infection or other complications.

Her dad had to quit his job in order for someone to stay with her. He quit because he didn't have health insurance through his job and I did and we weren't married. I worked T-Th 12 hour days and 1/2 day on Fridays and then traveled to Fargo, ND every Friday and stayed until Monday evening to be with them. It was awful being away from her during the week.

When she wasn't getting chemo, she received platelet and red blood cell transfusions, oral antibiotics, shots for her immune system and lots of blood tests to monitor things. She celebrated her 2nd birthday in the hospital while getting chemo. After the 2nd dose she was able to come back home and do the transfusions she needed in our home hospital. She would then go back for chemo every 5-6 weeks and this lasted until October at which time she was given 2 doses of chemo 2 weeks apart. Her body didn't have time to recoup and so at the end of Oct., after avoiding any infection up to that point, she developed a very high fever. She had to go back down to Fargo and was in the hospital for a week on antibiotics. Nothing showed in the tests that they did and her fever went down so they sent her home. About 3 days later her fever spiked again, this time to 105. We raced her back to Fargo and she was admitted again, only this time she spent 6 weeks in the hospital. She was given several different antibiotics , very powerful ones and nothing worked.

All the tests they performed didn't show what they were dealing with. She had skin lesions that looked like boils and were very painful and very infected. They had no idea what they were dealing with. They took tissue samples and sent them to the CDC in Atlanta, GA and they finally diagnosed a microbacteria that is normally only seen in adults. They didn't know how to treat it in a child her age and size, nor were they sure which medicines to use. Again they tried several and finally found the right combination. They also decided that in order to get rid of these lesions, she would have to have them surgically removed.

By this time she had gone through 2 hickman catheters and now had a port-a-cath in her chest. (What a strong little leukemia survivor!) She still was running fevers but not as high, they hovered around 101-103. She also still had to have chemo placed in her spinal column. That caused her to lose her hair. So now she had to have surgery every 2 months or so and we had to do IV antibiotics on her at home 3 times a day for the next year and a half. Talk about no life. Our life centered around when the next dose of medicine was and constant doctors appointments, blood tests and trips to Fargo.

She was pronounced in remission though in Jan. 1999. It took 9 months to get to that point. She is still in remission and will hit the 10 year mark for being a leukemia survivor this coming Jan. 2009. I can't believe it has been that long already. I can't believe she made it through not 1 life threatening illness but 3 all in about a 2 yr time frame.

All of the antibiotics that she was given for the skin infection in the early stages, caused her to go profoundly deaf in both ears. As if we didn't have enough wrong with her already, now we have this challenge added. I know we had been told of possible side effects of those meds but at the time we had no choice, it was give the medicine or lose my child. Pretty obvious which choice we took. Deafness I can handle, having my child die, I couldn't.

Although it took along time to get her immune system working again and countless procedures, tests and medicines, she is doing pretty well. I still worry all the time that she will relapse. I tend to be over protective of her. She is amazing. One would never know that she has been through the things that she has. I am not so sure I could have endured the pain and sickness the way she did. It was hard enough watching it all and feeling totally helpless. Thankfully I had a wonderful support group of people to get me through it all.

So even though my daughter no longer has cancer and is a leukemia survivor, I know very much what those of you who are dealing with it now are going through. My heart and prayers go out to all of you who are supporting someone with cancer in your family. Take each day as it comes, don't forget that the power of prayer is very strong and can be a great source of help. Don't be afraid to ask for help, to cry, to laugh, and to be a little selfish at times and take some time for yourself. You have to take care of you in order to take of others.

I will think good thoughts for all of you who are enduring cancer at this moment. My prayers are with you.

Renee and my daughter Chantel (My angel and strength)


Jennifer's Story

I graduated from high school with Jennifer and recently learned after sharing my son's story that she is a leukemia survivor. I asked her to share her story here and she agreed.

It was around Memorial Day in 2000 and I was out with my boyfriend and his Mom at Ritchey's Dairy getting ice cream and she asked me if I felt alright. I told her I was just a little tired. She told me after the fact I was as white as a ghost. Days later this still kept up and I was going to the Vo-Tech for Medical Secretarial School. My mom called the doctors and they ordered blood work. The next day the doctor called my mom and said to get me to the office right away. I knew in the back of my head it was bad news. It seemed like hours for the doctor to come in even though it wasn't. She said that the blood work can back and my blood level was a 4 and it should be like 10-13 so she sent me straight to the hospital with a box of tissues. They already had a room ready for me. They did the bone marrow biopsy and it came back that I had Leukemia (AML). I went through a lot of tests and many pints of blood. When they sent me to the hospital that day I didn't go home until a month later. I missed my graduation from Vo-Tech and my sister's graduation. I had chemotherapy for five months but every month I stayed in the hospital for 5 days because my chemo was 12 hours on then 12 hours off. They still don't know how I was working and going to school let alone get up out of bed every morning but I just had to. I was off of work for 9 months and I went back in March of 2001. This still makes me cry when I think of how my family and everyone was there for me. My Mom spent the night for the whole month I was first in the hospital in a lounge chair and I don't think I could ever thank her enough times. I was hard at times but I fought through it and I am now 29 years old and have been in remission for almost 9 years.

****A special thanks to all the leukemia survivors who have shared their story here. It brings hope to those who are fighting the battle.

More Leukemia Survivor Stories to come....

I am always looking for more leukemia survivor stories to add here. So if you are a leukemia survivor or caregiver of one and would like to share your story then please do so by filling out the form below.

Share Your Leukemia Survivor Story