| My name is
Mechelle, I am 34 years old and have to little boys . I was
diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia
in Sept./98. I was playing with my
children out in the yard one morning
and noticed alot of bruising and
pettichie, I went to the Dr. and had
some blood tests done. That evening I
found myself in the Leukemia &
BMT ward in isolation, I remained there for
21 days. I had my first round of
ATG/Cyclo/Pred in Sept./98 (my brother was
not a match for a BMT), I was then
transfusion dependent receiving platelets
every 7 days for 10 months and Hgb
every 21 days for 14 months. After a
year of transfusions and no response
it was decided to repeat the
ATG/Cyclo/Pred, so exactly one year
later I had ATG again. I was then
transfusion dependent on Plat. &
Hgb for approx. 2 months, then my counts
stopped dropping and stabilized. I
haven't had a transfusion in almost 20
months, (there were times when I
wondered if I would ever be able to say
that!!). My counts are still low, but
they are safe and stable. Slowly my
counts continue to coming up, it is
very hard "waiting". I know it could
take years for my counts to come to a
"somewhere normal" range. As long as
they are coming up, I am happy and
relieved!!
Before AA entered my life, I had
never been sick a day, never been in the
hospital except for the birth of my
children!!
In September it will be 3 years since
my diagnosis. I am still on Cyclo.,
last year we tried a slowly taper, my
counts remained stable throughout the
6 month taper. Just as I was
finishing the taper, my counts started to
drop. The Cyclo was restarted and my
counts bobbed up and have been stable
since. We are going to try the taper
again in Sept. I lead a very normal
life, I have no problem keeping up
with my active little boys. Most people
are very surprised when they learn of
my serious illness. They usually say,
"But you look so healthy".
I feel good, my energy level is pretty good. Im
very thankful for my life, that Im
here and beating AA. AA has taught me
many important lessons in life. It
forced me to look at life in a much
different way, ultimateley these
lessons have had a huge impact on the
person I've become. Sometimes
negative things can have positive outcomes.
Don't believe everything you read
about AA, many, many people live with this
disease, or better yet, beat it. It
can be done!
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