Wednesday, April 11, 2012

What a difference a year makes

"You have Acute Myeloid Leukemia."

Oddly enough, this news that my wife received about her health didn't come to her as a shock.  She expected it.

"Okay," she said, "that's what I thought.  Now what do we do?"

The doctor, exactly one year ago today, was probably in more of a shock that Melissa knew that she had AML and was prepared to deal with it.  A few weeks prior to this, she had been doctoring back and forth, eliminating the most common ailments and narrowing the list down.

During this time, she had a stack of medical book two feet high at home, and used them to study her various blood tests.  She told me once, "I think I have leukemia."

Always trying to remain positive, I told her that it must be something else, but she wouldn't hear of it.  The only question for her was whether it was acute or chronic myeloid leukemia.

And she said, "If it's the acute, we'll need to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester."

In the end, that's exactly what we did.

I spent many weekends, probably almost two dozen trips in all, going to Rochester with our three kids to visit Melissa.  Although she hit many roadblocks along the way, she plowed through them.  It'll still be a long process, but we're prepared for anything.

Can't believe how one can grow in a year.

How much one can learn.

And appreciate the little things more and more . . .

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