I am now fighting leukemia for the third time. On April 23, 2022, I heard what no one wants to hear, you have leukemia. They did the initial bone marrow biopsy at UMC in Jackson, MS and placed my first Picc line and told me to come back on May 2, 2022 to start induction chemotherapy. We were told to plan for at least a month in the hospital. The chemotherapy was bad but I thankfully didn’t get very sick as long as I didn’t force myself to eat something that didn’t sound good at the time. Three weeks later I was doing well enough that they felt comfortable enough with me going home. I went back in a couple of weeks to get a second bone marrow biopsy which showed no signs of disease. Thank You Jesus! Fast forward 11 months to March of 2023 and I was able to go back to work and I worked 3 shifts before I ended up back in the hospital. Leukemia is back. Next up is a bone marrow biopsy. That was the single most horrible experience of my life this far I do believe. I admitted the end of June and had a massive dose of chemotherapy before they gave me the bone marrow from my donor on July 3, 2023. The first week or so was ok, then they gave me another big dose of chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells in my body. The way they put it is they have to break me to fix me because from that point on until I started making my own again, I was totally dependent upon blood and platelets from the hospital. There was a period of about 3 weeks that I couldn’t eat or drink anything at all because I developed Grade 4 Mucositis and for those of you that don’t know what that is, its where you develop sores from the opening of your lips to your stomach. I got my nutrients intravenously and my husband would stop every day and bring me a slush from Sonic. He didn’t care that I couldn’t swallow it, it soothed my mouth some and while I didn’t swallow it all I could get a sip or two down from the whole drink; the rest was suctioned out of my mouth. I was totally miserable. I told my husband that I didn’t think I could go through that again if it ever came back. I had to think long and hard before I agreed to have another transplant. My team of doctors recommended that I go to MD Anderson for a second opinion. I tried to but they don’t take my insurance so we could not go there. We got in with a doctor with Baylor Medical Center in Houston and they admitted me the day we got out there. I had a fall going into the doctors exam room and fractured my hip (we would not know that it was fractured for about 2 weeks). They started me on induction chemotherapy again. They used a different chemotherapy regimen and this one had me extremely sick. They are also consulting with my team of doctors here as to what regimen to use so they did the same one again. Once again, I was so sick. I am scheduled for a second bone marrow biopsy as of now, I will admit to the hospital again the week of September 15, 2024. I had to go on disability, and the biggest amount of our income is now my husband. We have to stay close to the doctors in Jackson, MS which is about 3 hours away from our home so we are trying to maintain 2 households (splitting costs for each), plus there is a ton of extra gas for my husband to go to work everyday and be with me at night. My diet is very restricted when I’m on chemotherapy or after transplant and for about 6 months after transplant which caused an increase in our grocery bill as there are only certain things I can eat and I have to have each meal cooked fresh. I know times are tough for everyone but if you feel led to donate, we would really appreciate it. If you aren’t able to donate please say a prayer for myself and my family and share this post to try to get it to as many people as possible! Thank you for reading and I will make updates as I can. May God Bless You All

Edit to add that we are selling t-shirts if you would like to purchase one please let me know and I can get you the information and if we have enough orders we will do another order of the shirts. They are Gildan shirts and will go from Adult Small to Adult 6XL and are $25 a shirt, and I will be happy to ship to you for exact cost of shipping over the cost of the shirt.