Eleven years ago I was diagnosed with a very rare from of leukemia. I had just turned 30 and as a small business owner living in Las Vegas I was very excited about the prospect of my business taking off at the end of its second year. It was January and the height of flu season across the country. The news was reporting that patients exhibiting flu symptoms were facing up to eight hour waits in the doctor offices and hospital emergency rooms before being seen and treated. The news urged flu suffers to stay at home unless they absolutely had to see a doctor.

Although I was sick with a debilitating illness that threatened my life I was not feeling the symptoms of the flu and continued to go to work. I was very pale in my complexion and weak as the blood within me had mutated and was working against me. After two weeks of exhausting fatigue and being cold all the time, even in the mild winter temperatures of Las Vegas, I finally decided to visit a doctor after I had a profuse nosebleed that scared me enough to seek the help of a medical professional. Outside of having several unexplained large dark bruises scattered over my body I felt little effect of being ill and believed that my fatigue may be related to a blood disorder like diabetes.

I waited in the doctors office for about two hours before a Physicians Assistant saw me. After giving me a once over and assuming that I had been abusing aspirin I was told that I had the flu and I would be all right. Convinced that I had a more serious illness I insisted on having a full blood workup and convinced the Physicians Assistant to order the series of blood tests. After being told that it would be a week before the lab results came back I left the doctors office and returned to work. Because I was self-employed I could not afford to lose time from being off work for long, I went back to my office and finished the day. I left my office a little before 5 PM and drove home receiving a cell phone call from my wife telling me that the doctors office had called and that I needed to call them back when I got home.

After talking to a nurse I was instructed to go to the hospital to be admitted and that I would be receiving a blood transfusion as a result of my low blood counts. I was not told anything else and the nurse would not give me any further information outside of telling me that my Electronic Medical Record or EMR was being transferred to the hospital and I would be admitted without delay. I was told that I would be staying overnight and that I should pack a bag. Outside of these instructions I was told nothing else. I packed an overnight bag and drove myself to the hospital where I was admitted once my EMR had arrived by electronic transfer.

After checking in at the front desk I was wheeled upstairs by an orderly and given a private room after I was told I was on reverse isolation. Not knowing what that meant I was glad to have my own room and settled in about 6:30 PM. I had been so concerned about my reasoning for being admitted to the hospital, and what was now written in my EMR, that I had not eaten dinner and I was not even hungry. After being alone since my arrival I was finally visited by an oncologist just after 8 PM. She had just seen my EMR and asked if the lab technician had been in to take more blood samples and when I told her I had not been visited she left. About half an hour later, a phlebotomist came in and took 18 vials of my blood from my arm.

Still having no idea what was going on and not having received a blood transfusion I waited alone in my room wondering why I had not been treated with the transfusion I had come in for and pondering why, if my blood counts were so low, did I have an order to remove 18 vials of blood from my body? I wondered what was written on my EMR and I sat there alone until the oncologist returned about 10 PM and announced that she believed I had leukemia and would not know anything more until she received the results of a bone marrow biopsy in the morning. She noted that I was scheduled for the biopsy at 8 AM the next morning and then she left.

I could not believe my ears. We suspect you have leukemia. The words echoed in my head as I sat alone in my bed with my wife and two children at home. Needless to say I did not get much sleep that night after talking to my wife and telling her my suspected diagnosis. When I awoke, I was greeted by another doctor and nurse who took the bone marrow biopsy from my hip. The EMR also indicated that I was scheduled for an ultrasound of my vital organs to check for signs of internal bleeding, because I had no platelets to clot my blood and there was a danger of my blood leaking through my veins and organs. In addition to the ultrasound my EMR ordered for a full body x-ray and the implanting of a shunt into my arm to make transfusions and treatments easier for me to take and blood to be drawn out.

Because of the procedures I was to undergo and the schedule throughout my day I was not allowed to eat until I completed the ultrasound and I was moved into the Critical Care Unit of the hospital where I could be more closely watched for internal hemorrhaging into my brain and heart. After an exhausting day I was finally allowed to eat a modest dinner and call my wife again to confirm that the doctors had officially diagnosed me with an extremely rare form of blood cancer called Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. I spent ten days in the Critical Care Unit of the hospital as may blood was slowly brought up to a level where it would be strong enough to begin treatment with chemotherapy.