Carly’s Leukemia fight

Hi, my name is Carly and I am fundraising to help with both medical related and my family living costs while I fight leukemia and off work. On 2nd March 2022 I hadn’t felt 100% for a couple of weeks. This included dizziness even when laying down. Being out of breath and heart racing over 130bpm just walking to the fridge. I made a GP appointment and he ordered bloods (I have since seen him, hugged him and thanked him for literally saving my life). That night around 9pm I received a phone call from the on-call doctor with Mater Pathology. I was told to write down 3 sets of numbers and present to emergency asap. These readings were hemoglobin (red blood cells) 44 (should be over 120), platelets (blood clotting) 38 (should be over 150) and neutrophils (body’s infection defence) 0.9 (should be over 1.8). What I later learned is that if I hadn’t gone to emergency that night the reality would have been I would have had a heart attack and died without even knowing I had leukemia which is why they wheeled my straight through to resuscitation and I was not left alone. I was transferred to the Princess Alexandra hospital in Brisbane, Australia. For my initial 45 day stay in hospital I had countless blood tests, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions, “neutrophil” injections and SO many other tests on everything from head to toe including full body MRI & CT scans. I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). It is a type of leukemia that I am told, 60% who get it are children, 35% are older males, so I fit nicely into the 5%. It is not genetic, it is not environmental and I was just really unlucky. I would have only had it for 2-4 weeks before presenting to emergency which makes it even scarier. It is an aggressive leukemia but luckily for me also responds well to aggressive treatment. I’ve had multiple bone marrow biopsy’s, lumber punctures where they not only take a sample of the spinal fluid but also put chemo directly into my spinal fluid to protect my brain. But all in all…. The Treatment goal has been and always will be cure the leukemia. I am being treated the way they would a child which is super aggressive and the medical team hope I bounce back just like they do.

My medical team have been wonderful and I know I’m in the best hands. I can not thank them more highly for the care I have been given both as an inpatient and outpatient.

To me this is not a death sentence and there is no other option than to fight this and be ok. I have too much of a wonderful life to live for with my family, friends and great memories still to be had.

Last but certainly not least any donation would be so very welcomed just to lighten the financial load just a little. In lieu of a donation please consider donating blood or plasma because I’ve lost count of how many blood and plasma transfusions that helped save my life and I am forever grateful to those who donated. Without them I wouldn’t have a fighting chance.

Heres to fighting this demon and coming out the other side better than before