Starting August 2014 I started feeling under the weather, feverish and very tired. Many doctor visits and medicines later, the diagnosis was found. I was struck with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) and I was kept in the hospital. My bone marrow was creating too young and useless white blood cells because of the cancer. That caused to block my other blood cells to develop correctly. Luckily the cancer cells hadn’t spread out yet to other body parts or organs. During my first chemo session however, I was caught with pneumonia as well. Which resulted in a collapsed lung, the other filling up with fluids and a month stay at intensive care with a breathing machine.
So yes, it has been a rough ride already. But now we are four chemo sessions in isolation, full body radiation and a stem cell transplantation later. Everything is going great. My body is accepting the donor cells quite easily and I’m feeling much better. We’re not in the clear yet for at least half a year. But expectations are looking bright. We never have let down hope and spirits. That couldn’t have been kept up without the great help of my girlfriend, parents, family, colleagues and friends.
(I do am looking forward to getting back to work at some point. Sitting at home, pretty much isolated, gets boring at a certain point + work is my hobby.)