My Dad has recently been diagnosed with aCML and has to have a bone marrow transplant to survive. He's feeling great and looking great, but knowing what's to come in the next 6 months has me depressed beyond words. We are so close - we talk about 5 to 6 times a day, I even work for him! This news is crushing.
The odds are in his favor to find a match and beat this beast - but the next year will be hell for him.
We leave on June 2nd for our annual Disney trip and I just can't get excited. Dad wants me to go and have a great time like we always do (he's not going) and he told me to try to keep things normal for my daughter, the light of his life.
Has anyone else had experience with this type of Leukemia? I need to get strong and determined, somehow.
TIA
Hello -
My father had this leukemia in 1979 when the longest remission was 90 days. He decided to allow the doctors at Johns Hopkins to try a new experimental treatment - transplant. He was in remission for 24 days. He wanted the doctors to learn as much as they could from his illness. Hopefully, they will apply that knowledge to your father.
You will find your strength - it's inside of you waiting to be called on. I didn't think I had it.....I was going through a very nasty divorce at the same time Dad was in the hospital.
Now - word about your disney trip. Go, and do me a favor (if you will be at WDW).........
Years ago when Wishes was first introduced in October, I was a few weeks away from my annual pilgrimage right after Thanksgiving. My girlfriend was not feeling well. A week later (and one week before I was to leave) she was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma - stage 4 - very serious.
The first thing I said was - I will cancel my trip. If I was measuring her life in weeks, I wasn't going to spend ONE of them away at WDW. Joan said NO...please go.
With a heavy heart, a week later, I boarded my flight to WDW.
That first night I found myself at the head of Main Street - by the popcorn cart next to the horse in the sidewalk - watching Wishes for the first time.
It was a moment I'll never forget. The show was all about my situation with Joan.....believe in your wishes. Crying, I asked to bring Joan to WDW the next year for my pilgrimage -- and to see wishes.
Joan struggled with chemo and eventually her transplant. It was tough - I learned many lessons from her courage - something I didn't think she had. How wrong I was.
One year later, and in the company of about 20 people from the DIS - we stood the the very same spot - with Joan in remission - and watches Wishes. There was not a dry eye anywhere nearby.
Joan eventually lost her battle with Multiple Myeloma - but she is still with me each time I watch Wishes....from the Joan spot. Joan just has a much better view now.
I know your heart will be heavy. I know it doesn't make any sense to go when you want to stay. It will make your Dad happy. Cancer patients (both of my parents had cancer)....cancer patients seek .... normal.
Call your Dad each night and tell him what you did. Make him smile......and go stand on the Joan spot and send a wish.
No one will ever be able to tell me there is no magic in that place. It worked for Joan and I.
I learned so much from Joan about courage, grace, strength and dignity. Her last night I was able to tell her Jim and I were going to be married - in Alaska that summer. I made her promise to come - she would know where to sit. She squeezed my hand.
At our tiny wedding there was a chair covered with blue and gold flowers (Joan's favorite colors)....so she would know where to sit. Again....she had the best view and she was with us.
"Remember, we must always believe in our Wishes for they are the magic in the World. Now, lets put our hearts together and make our Wishes come true.
Good luck.....PM me if you need a shoulder.
Cathy
as well as for your daughter. I'll keep you all, especially your Dad, in my thoughts and prayers. I hope he has a great result from his transplant. Do the trip for him, too - take lots of pictures of his granddaughter (she is gorgeous!), keep a little journal about where you went and when, what you ate, etc - a trip report just for him! He sounds like a man with a lot of spirit!
