My story and how Mighty Mom came to be....

I am new to this blog thing so bear with me on this new adventure.


Until December of 2008 I was just a normal woman, Mom, wife, friend. employee dealing with the same day to day lives as everyone around me. We all have different paths but life was "normal". I was and still am married to the love of my life and have an amazing 10 year old son and an almost 16 year old stepdaughter. She doesn't live with us here in SC so we miss her!

I got really sick the week between Christmas and New Years 2 years ago (2008 into 2009). Not unusual for me to get sick really but it is for it not to go away.My doctor at the time at first treated me with antibiotics but the chest stuff would not go away. She never tried another kind of antibiotic and kept telling me it was asthma. I tried the asthma meds but that is not what it felt like and I hadnt had issues with asthma since I was about 11! Finally I called a different doc who was recommended to me and went to him. I was prescribed 19 days of high dose antibiotics and steroids. The highest dose he had ever prescribed actually! I checked in with him pretty regular over the 19 days and saw him the day before I finished all that. I told him I was feeling kind of week. Hard to shower cause my arms felt heavy and just exhausted. He explained this could be coming off the meds but he wanted to see me when i got home for new patient workup..blood work and such...we hadn't done it because with the borderline Pnamonia it would have come back messed up. This was a Thursday, I left a couple days later for the beach with Beth and her family. I was a wreck the whole week. Not me at all. I would lose my breath easy, I was so week it was crazy, nausous, I couldn't even walk to the pool without several breaks and it wasn't far...it was bad! We were at Emerald Isle so I think it's about 12 or 13 hrs Home. Just me and the kids. Honestly God was with me! I don't know how else to explain it. I sat stop and go through Virginia too the whole state. I couldnt even unload the car. The kids had to do it. i could hardly walk into my house. I finally collapsed into bed about midnight. When I woke up at 3 my eyes were blurry and it wouldnt "rub" away. I knew something was wrong but nothing I could do till Monday. A friend took me to the eye doc on Monday and both my retinas had hemmoraged and my cranial pressure was high. I needed to see a neuro doc asap but noone could get me in. I went home and they would call me in the am. My sis is a nurse and step sis a PA and they stepped up with opinions!  This was a not acceptable, I needed care ASAP! My hubby was on the road so my stepdad drove down from Wadsworth and got me and the kids. He kept the kids and my mom took me to the ER. My blood work was a mess but nothing to say what was wrong. To put it into perspective a normal hemoglobin for me is 11-15 mine was a 4 in the ER. Most people are not consciense! They admitted me. The PCP they assigned me was a fucking idiot!! However the luck of the draw was mine with a hemotologist! I got Dr. Rehmus! She is one of the most amazing docs/people I have ever met! They just kept telling me they thought it was an autoimmune diesease but not acute leaukemia....then with blood work being off but no answers she did a bone maarow biopsy (BMB) she had to do 2 that first time. It sucked horrible and I have a good pain tolerance! The next day the PCP said I would probably go home but they had to wait for DR. R signiture too. Dr.R came in around 5 and sat on my bed ...thank God my Mom had just come in or I would be alone....and told me it was AML.....I was on the cancer floor by 530!  AML is a horrible form of Leukemia, not that any are good, but this is particularly aggressive.  Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) became my enemy and I would win! I had too much to live for! My first hospital stay I was there for a month. I was exceptionally sick and at times couldn't talk. I am not going to rehash it all but will say feel free to ask and I will answer anything. In this month my sister, Elizabeth (Bit to us) came up with the idea to start a carepage and I gave the go ahead. I have an amazing, huge family and I was having trouble talking because of mouthsores and would lose track of who I told what. On top of that I needed my rest and the phone was crazy! LOL She came up with the Mighty Mom. It fits me and it has stuck! We did the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS)  Light the Night Walk under the name, my carepage and now my blog. 

I can't say enough how blessed I am to have such an amazing support system. I honestly don't know how people do it without it! I am starting this as a way to communiate not only my day to day life but also toupdate everyone on my status, doctor appt and such. This blog is for me. I love carepages and it has been amazing for me, I just feel it is time to move on. Carepages was for while I was sick. I am ALIVE and I am ready to move on.  I deal with AML and the issues it has caused me with my body still everyday. It is a part of me and helped make me who I am. It doesn't disappear and neither to the mental issues that come with it. It didn't make me crazy or anything but it did increase my anxiety, made me more of a germaphob than I ever was and took a lot of my strength. I am fighting everyday to get this back! I have to believe that I got this horrible disease for a reason and for me that is to help people with the cancer diagnosis and fight. That is why I share my story and that is why I make myself available to talk. 

This is my story and this is how Mighty Mom came to be!



~Live strong, have faith and never stop smiling~  my motto and how I live my life and fight my fight!