Happy Valentines’s Day.  You have leukemia.

Fuck, what?  Did you just say LEUKEMIA??????

It started in mid/late December 2013.  I felt two lumps underneath my chin and decided to go direct to the ENT.  I met with the ENT in mid January.  He put me on antibiotics for 10 days and told me to follow up in two weeks.  Okay.  After the antibiotics stopped, that’s when it really kicked in.  I had no idea why I was so tired, but just attributed it to working so much.  So within the five days of going back to the ENT and stopping the antibiotics I developed huge bruises everywhere, petechiae, and more lumps on my neck then I thought possible, fatigue to the point where I couldn’t walk up the stairs in my house without feeling light headed and needing to sit down.  I had been having night sweats but had always had them on and off so didn’t even think that would be a cause for concern.  I mean come on, I thought I was anemic for god’s sake.

So on Valentine’s Day, at my follow up appointment with the ENT, I went through my list of problems. The ENT sent me directly to an internal medicine doctor.  Going through my symptoms once again, which would be the first of about 300 times, he finally walked me around his office and that is when my heart rate spiked to 167.   He kept asking if I was feeling okay, I was tired but could walk around the office.  He then said I should get some blood work done, but since it was a Friday afternoon that to expedite the process I should be admitted to the ER.  At this point I am still not worried.  Still thinking it’s from being anemic, we go to the ER.

While in the ER, blood was drawn.  I am not sure how much time passed, but a doctor came in and said, we think you may have leukemia but want to run a few more tests to make sure.  WHAT?!?  I think I blacked out at that point.  As my husband is sitting next to me “When I was in the hospital for my liver infection they didn’t know what I had either and were just saying possibilities out loud.”  Sure enough, doctor came back in and said, “You have leukemia.”

FUCK!  That is when my hemoglobins were at 4.  They put in an order for blood and said I was going to be transferred downtown to Northwestern.

Away we go down the rabbit hole.