Re: My Two Year CML Diagnosis Anniversary-

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

Congratulations on your 2 year cml dx anniv. I enjoyed reading your post. Newly

diagnosed patients will be inspired and moved by your words.

 

God Bless and many more anniversary.

 

Jackie S.

From: <icynena@...>

Subject: [ ] My Two Year CML Diagnosis Anniversary

Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 9:46 PM

 

Dear Friends,

As I was sitting here this evening checking my E-Mail, I realized that today is

July 17th. I arrived a short while ago from my husband's Grandmother' s house

since I bought the kids there to spend the day with her and, honestly, today's

date just dawned on me. Two years ago today I received the news that I had CML.

I can only compare this moment to being hit on the side of the head with a

sledgehammer because I never expected to hear such horrible news at the age of

30. All I could think about, at that moment, was figuring out how to survive

long enough to raise my boys, who were then ages 1 and 4. They were all that I

could think about at that moment and are all that I think about every morning

when I wake up and every night when I go to sleep.

This has not been an easy journey in many respects. I am no longer the person

that I was physically two years ago. Gleevec has been a miraculous drug for me

but not without taking its pound of flesh in the form of side effects. I have

constant pain in my legs in the form of joint pain and muscle cramps.

Additionally, edema has changed my once normal ankles to party balloon animals.

Despite, or rather in spite, of all of this, I am alive today to write this

message.

This journey, however, has also magnified the joys and blessings in my life. My

children are now 3 and 6 and I pray every day that the medicine will keep

working for me so that I may see them grow into men. I now drink in every

experience and have a much greater appreciation for the precious moments that I

am blessed to witness on a daily basis. Along the way, I have lost people in my

life who I thought were in my corner and gained others whom I never would have

expected to step up to the plate. The fear is always there but it sits in the

backseat most of the time instead of holding me by the hand and leading me

along.

My husband has been my biggest hero through all of this. He reminds me every

single day how beautiful I am and how much I am loved even if I don't feel as

beautiful most of the time as I used to. Even in those moments when I feel like

I'm defective because of the disease and its limitations he has a way of

knocking some sense into me in a gentle and loving way. Our caregivers deserve

so much respect, admiration, and recognition for all that they do for us

physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

I also want to say that I couldn't have made it this far without some of you. I

can still recall, during those dark, early moments of diagnosis how some of you

like Lottie, Barb, Zavie, , etc. reached out to me in my despair and

selflessly smothered me in hope and shared their journeys with me. It is amazing

how this horrible disease manages to unite people who don't know each other to

establish an instant bond due to a quiet understanding of what we each have to

endure. Thank you all for your support, knowledge, understanding, and caring

ways. It has meant a lot to me over these last two years and fueled my desire to

fight and to live.

I salute all of you and here is to a cure as soon as possible. Hopefully, we

will all be here to share many anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, and other

joyous events for many decades to come. May you all continue to thrive on

medication as we await this cure and onward to PCRU (or at least a 3 log

reduction) for everyone.

Sincerely,

NYC