Reply #10: I was diagnosed with Actue Leukemia June 28th 2002 [View All]

[Tripper11]

I remember the day, the hour I got sick...June 10th around 8:30 pm.

I felt like shit for about 2 and a half weeks. Flu like symptoms, very high fever, always tired. I mean so tired I would drive my wife to the park and ride about a mile away, drop the kids at daycare, then have to get home as soon as I could to get some rest as I was ready to pass out.

The first time I saw a doctor she said I had an upper bronchial infection and that it should clear up in a week or so. The symptoms didn't decrease but persisted and 2 and a half weeks later, after insisting on a blood test, the result was Acute Myloid Leukemia.

After treatment I was transplanted with stem cells from my brother and am doing awesome! I am back to normal completely.

The point of acute leakemia is that it comes on very, very quickly with no "specific" symptoms to speak of.

As for the causeof it...no ideas whatsoever. I had worked construction for 10 years in various fields, but no exposure to any chemicals or stuff like that. I asked the various docs and specialists involved in my case what the cause might have been. Everyone had the same answer; there is no real "cause" per sey but they all agreed that enviromental may have something to do with it.

In my case, I am the only person on both sides of my immediate family to have ever had a form of cancer.

*edited for typos