A Voice of Experience

Fact:  Acute myelogenous leukemia's victims are usually adults and they're usually men.

Brother Johnson came to visit Kaitlyn today. (In our church we call each other "brother" and "sister," and it is used as a respectful address similar to "Mr." and "Mrs." as well.)  Anyway, Casey and I had met Brother Johnson here at church, but he hadn't ever met Kaitlyn of course.  He's a very nice man, probably in his 70's, but the really interesting thing about him is that he has AML--the same type of leukemia Kaitlyn has.

Brother Johnson was diagnosed with AML in January of this year.  He went through all the courses of chemo and he's doing pretty well now.  He talked with Kaitlyn a little about how the treatments go and they compared notes.  He gave her some tips and encouraged her to move around and try to be as active as she can even if she didn't really feel like it.  He also advised her not to fall down--evidently he fell and broke several ribs during his treatments!  (I'm not sure that was related to the leukemia.)  He said that he has not had a bone marrow transplant yet, but if he relapses he will.

We told him about our plans to transfer to SLC to be closer to family and he agreed that sounded like a good idea.  He told us how much having his sons visit helped him when he was still in the hospital.  (He has 8 sons!)  He said he would be by to visit again and asked if he could do anything for us.  Nothing better than having someone diagnosed 10 months ago walk in here looking healthy and sound!

I am so impressed that he took the time to come and talk to a young girl he's never even seen before, but then everyone here has been great.  We have truly been blessed to land among such caring people!