My Stay at the Weinberg Center at Johns Hopkins

Leukemia is a type of cancer of the blood and the bone marrow (the inner part of bones where blood cells are made). In people with leukemia, certain types of blood cells turn into cancer cells and then the body keeps producing large numbers of these abnormal cells. Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is one type of leukemia. "Chronic" means that it is a slower-growing cancer that may take years to progress. "Myeloid" refers to the type of white blood cell being overproduced. So, CML is a slowly progressing cancer that makes the body produce too many cancerous myeloid white blood cells. When a person is healthy, signals in the body tell it to produce new blood cells. These signals reach early cells, called stem cells, which mature into various types of blood cells. The signals turn stem cells on and off as necessary to produce the number of blood cells the body needs. When a person has CML, a change takes place in the person's DNA and makes this signal stay on constantly. Since this signal stays on, the body produces more and more abnormal cells. This is how my leukemia began.

There are three phases of CML: the chronic phase, the accelerated phase, and the blast crisis phase. As patients move through these phases, their disease progresses, and they experience more physical symptoms. Unfortunately, I did not find out that I had CML in the early, chronic phase before it progressed to the more advanced phase of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) , which is a much faster-growing leukemia. No one knows why someone gets leukemia - they just do.

CML and ALL can be treated with a bone marrow transplant (BMT), with drug therapy, or with a combination of the two, but for me a bone marrow transplant is the only way to go. BMT is also known as a stem cell transplant (SCT). Currently I am on an oral chemotherapy called Gleevec until a bone marrow donor can be found. Once a donor has been identified I will be hospitalized and given a very high dose of one or more drugs to kill most of the cells in the bone marrow (cancer cells and healthy cells). The next step is to replace the destroyed stem cells with only healthy cells.

These replacement cells are usually taken from someone else (this is known as an allogeneic transplant). For an allogeneic transplant to succeed, the cells taken must closely match those of the patient. My siblings are being tested as this is being written. I have read that finding a matched donor—related or unrelated—is often difficult, but I refuse to accept that right now. There are obviously risks involved, but the plan is to move forward. Once the stem cells are replaced, they will settle into my bone marrow and start to grow and produce healthy blood cells.

After spending some time in Unit 5C at the beautiful Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center at Johns Hopkins I "stepped down" to Unit 5A for two days and then surprisingly was sent home! My counts are where they should be (which are good for someone with leukemia and on chemo but not as good as normal) and I'm feeling pretty darn good right now. Probably physically better than I have felt in months. The Gleevec has basically put my leukemia in a sort of remission - at least for the time being.

I have met my "team" of doctors and already feel a kinship. I know they hold my best interest at heart. The care at Hopkins is so superior to any other care I have ever received - I am very grateful. Although my future seems uncertain at times, I know that they will get me through this as best they can.