Last year was terrible. My father had been diagnosed with myodisplasia, a blood cancer. He lost the will to live and started giving up on all the things he did in his life. He had gone to Yale, and his doctor placed him as a bone marrow candidate and began a regimen of chemo.
The cancer center found a donor who matched almost perfectly, dad just needed to clear the cancer from his blood and bone marrow. After six rounds of chemo, including a sudden drop of blood pressure to 29 and a stay in intensive care, a bad reaction to a transfusion which landed him in intensive care, my parents were told that there was nothing they could do, it had become acute myeloid leukemia. That was September 28.
On October 10, 2009, Jody Reilly died. So quickly.
Today, I became a member of Etsy Project Embrace, teamepe, where 10% of sales will go to the American Cancer Society. Nobody should die this way, and I hope this helps others. Checking out becoming a bone marrow donor is my next step.
Michelle
