SURVIVOR

Hello everybody, my Marcus reminded me today how much I have really neglected my Blog these past few months. I found facebook & that is where I have focused my updates these days. It seems like once I got through the hospital chemotherapy treatments & I moved on to the next phase of maintenance chemotherapy treatments, which were out patient, my life started picking up the pace again like I was never sick at all. (& that is a good thing)

I am very happy to report I just finished my last round of Chemotherapy treatment on December 5th! WOOHOO!!! I am so glad that part is finally over. I go back to the James Cancer Institute in January 2010 to get the 7th bone marrow biopsy taken. I am confident it will still show I am in remission, since I just finished chemo. The true test will be the bone marrow biopsy in the fall of 2010. That will be the fist biopsy in over 2 years that I have not had any chemotherapy to keep the cancer away.

Christmas will be here soon & it is hard to believe that this time last year I was desperately fighting for my life, my how things have improved. I hope this holiday season finds you all happy, healthy and surrounded by the ones you love. Don’t take one second of your life for granted!

For those of you who have AML & stumbled across my blog in your search for information or survivors. I have been in your shoes. The search was an obsession when I was initially diagnosed & it was hard pill to swallow when I went months & found no survivors I started to panic & slipped into a severe depression. I have detailed my journey from initial diagnosis to remission on this blog in the hope that it will help someone else because finding survivors helps give you hope. Scroll down to the right side of the page to the archive section. My AML fight all began back in September 2008 & although it was a long road it was not an impossible one. Don't get to hung up on the medical bills, you will never be able to pay for them all, set yourself up with payment plans that you can afford to pay on for the rest of your life. (Be realistic & keep them small, you will have multiple billers you have to pay on) You need to have a really good support system, mine was my Marcus. He pushed me when I needed it & loved me through it all. My children were my motivation when I felt I could not fight it any longer on the really bad days. For every bad day the good days far outweighed them. I have been VERY involved in my treatment & always pushed the doctors to keep me informed every step of the way. If you do not question them they will not tell you because most of the patients are to sick, tired or weak to know what questions to ask. Now I am a firm believer that attitude is everything & you have to stay positive. If you just lay there & let it, the cancer will take you! You have to fight it, the fatigue, the depression, the cancer... I used to be a pessimist, it was a major change for me but I had to become an optimist (I always say I am a realist so I wanted hard facts & in my age bracket there were not many to go off of since the demographic for someone with AML is 65 years or older males & I am a 35 year old female. The point is, THERE IS HOPE & YOU CAN DO IT!

Although I am not on my Blog much these days I am on facebook just about every week, so is Marcus. My e-mail address is sandittie1@yahoo.com or type in Sandi Golden-Vest on the facebook search engine & add me as one of your friends. I post something just about once a week & if I don’t Marcus does. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you all so much for your prayers & support,

Sandi Golden-Vest