"At the beginning of my senior year in college right after I turned 21 I started noticing that I was out of breath when going to the gym, or climbing stairs. I just chalked it up to being out of shape. I continued to go to the gym to increase my stamina (haha), but within a few weeks the shortness of breath had gotten worse and reached the point where I could walk to my classes from my car at school without having to stop b/c I was so out of breath. By October I also started having pounding headaches, I lived on the 3rd floor of my house at school and by the time I climbed three flights of stairs I had horrible pounding headaches. The headaches were so bad I had to lie down immediately by the time I would reach my room. At this point I thought something was wrong, nothing major, I was assuming allergies or maybe I was anemic for some reason (haha, major understatement!). I called my mom b/c she is a nurse and she should have the answer to everything :) She told me to go make an appointment with the school health services. I made my appointment, met with a nurse and I explained my shortness of breath and headaches and how at the symptoms had gotten so bad that I had barely made it from the parking lot to the office. The nurse had no idea what was wrong and she told me to wait while she went and to get the doctor. The doctor came in and I explained everything to her... she told me she had just read an article on exercise induced headaches and that is probably what I had. She told me that I should walk slower and to come back in two weeks if things didn't get better. After hearing that, I made an appointment with my primary care doctor in Rochester. I drove home on a Friday for my appointment, and met with my nurse practitioner. She wasn't too sure what was wrong, but decided to draw some blood to see if any of the values were off. I went back to school Monday and Tuesday morning I received an urgent call from my primary care doctor, she told me to get to Strong's emergency room as soon as possible, but to have someone drive me because my red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells were dangerously low.
After being in the emergency department for 48 hours, countless blood tests, two blood transfusions and two bone marrow biopsies later I was admitted onto Strong's oncology unit and told that I had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Within 24 hours of being diagnosed, my central line (somewhat like a semi-permanent IV into my chest that I would receive all my treatments through) was placed and I began treatment.
My treatment protocol was 25 months long, I received traditional IV chemotherapy, Intrathecal chemotherapy, and radiation to my brain.
I'm so happy to say that I finished treatment in December of 2006 and have continued to have perfectly normal check-ups ever since."
Kim graduated from Binghamton in 2006 with her Bachelor's in political science and just graduated this past May from the U of R with her Bachelor's in nursing :) She also volunteers with several cancer support groups in the community and pretty much rocks my world. I am running for Kim. At mile 22, when I hit the wall, I will think of Kim. And at the finish I will thank Kim for getting me through :)
xoxo
http://pages.teamintrainin
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