Inspirational Stories

Our daughter, Monica, is a busy mother of three sweet girls, age 12 months, 3 years and 6 years. After a long winter filled with the girls’ colds, infections, and flu, Monica was exhausted.

On April 4, 2019, she went to her doctor thinking that she was anemic. The doctor ordered blood work and said that the results would be available the following Monday. The morning of April 5, she was called and ordered to the ER. She was transported by ambulance to a cancer center about 60 miles away. Life changed in an instant. Monica was diagnosed with Mixed Phenotype Acute Leukemia, a combined form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) on April 10. She immediately started chemo, 24-hour chemo for 4 days straight. They had to treat this type of leukemia very aggressively.

After the first round of chemo, Monica developed Nocardiosis, Clostridium Difficile Colitis (C. Dif) and Streptococcus sanguinis (common Strep infection). The infections combined with the strong chemo drugs severely impacted Monica's heart and she was placed in ICU for 4 days (May 8 -11). She had heart failure with left ventricular ejection fraction of 21% with fluid in her lungs and chest.

Monica started course B of her chemo protocol which would last 4 days on Tuesday, May 21. Things appeared to be going well until Thursday morning, she had completely lost her eyesight. Chemo was stopped. Miraculously, the bone marrow biopsy in June was clear of the leukemia cells.

Monica had a Peripheral Blood Stem Transplant on July 12, 2019. Amazingly, her brother, Greg, was a perfect match (16 of 16!). Monica is a Warrior and Greg is a Super Hero.