On Monday, March 16th, I awoke to a surprising email that my school district would have an eLearning day due to hazardous road conditions which had developed overnight. Around 11:05 a.m., while I was technically on my "lunch break," I received the call from the hematology provider whom I'd met with the previous Thursday when my blood had been drawn. She told me I had AML, and I needed to be admitted to the hospital by the end of the day. To say I was shocked is an understatem

On April 16th, my oncologist also began the proceedings needed for me to have a bone marrow transplant, which included swabbing the inside of my cheeks and sending the sample to a national donor registry. This was not information I wanted to hear. I was hopeful that the disease had been caught early enough that the chemo would put me into remission and a transplant would not be needed. I now believe a transplant is standard treatment for my type of leukemia. I have been re