Inspirational Stories

I have leukemia/lymphoma and have been fighting this illness for seven years. I became ill in 2011 but made somewhat of a recovery until 2015 when I got really sick (upper respiratory issues) that took the medical system in Las Vegas more than a year to diagnose as leukemia. By the time I was hospitalized the first time, my white cell count was over 38,000. It took three hospitalizations before my illness was diagnosed. By the time I was diagnosed with lymphoma, my lungs had severe, unrecoverable damage, leaving me on oxygen most of the time, even during sleep. In 2018, I had a heart attack requiring heart surgery due to the stress of my illness and several surgeries dealing with melanoma on my back, squamous cell skin cancer on my arm, and basal cell on my head. Today I am a little better and receiving immunoglobulin treatments every 28 days. These are the people I see at least every three months with some being seen every month: my regular family physician; my oncologist; my pulmonologist; my cardiologist; my dermatologist/Mohs surgeon.

I’m not sure how much longer my IVIG treatments will last as it is a four–five-hour treatment. It is pretty hard on me, but I think it’s the best I can do for now. My oncologist does not want me to do any trials, other drug treatments, or a bone marrow transplant as this would require chemotherapy and possibly radiation.

In all this, the most difficult things are:

1. Knowing I have cancer.
2. Having to see so many doctors.
3. People not getting vaccinated, not wearing masks, lying about their vaccine status, and attacking people like me who have had to wear a mask for going on seven years now.