Amy8's Journey with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

The first round of chemotherapy I had nausea and my major side effect was swollen gums, so bad that I could barely eat. The 2nd round of chemotherapy my major side effect was horrible pains in my legs. The third round of chemotherapy my major side effect was a horrible headache that lasted 3-4 days.

I had my bone marrow transplant on June 16th, 2010. I had a perfect match donor from Germany. I had a week of very strong chemo to wipe everything out before my transplant. The day of my transplant was not a fun one. After I got infused with all the marrow, I had the worst migraine headache I have ever experienced. Nothing would take the pain away. I had to strong pain medicine every few hours to help the pain the whole day. I was in the hospital for a month for my transplant. Throughout my recovery at the hospital I had a very bad sore throat for 10 days where I could barely swollen anything, not even medicine. It was a very hard experience but i got through it.

A month before my transplant I turned 20 and my friends and family through a huge surprise birthday party for me!

I had a boyfriend of 2 years throughout my whole experience. He was there for me through everything and was really great support for me. Three days before I was about to get out of the hospital for good he broke up with me because his feelings had changed. He went on with life without me and I had to learn to cope without him.