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Please help Dee get Transplant

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WHY I NEED YOUR HELP?¿? When diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in the late evening of July 26th, 2017 there was a warm, tingling, strong feeling in my chest! I knew immediately this special tingle was there to reassure me that I was going to survive! A mighty battle was ahead of me and nothing about this fight for my Life would be easy. {Today is December 11th & the reassuring feeling is still just as strong as Day#1} The only way to save my Life is a Bone Marrow Transplant. It will be done at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha. My stay in the hospital should be about 3 weeks, however upon discharge I'm required to stay in Omaha for aproximately 80 days! This where I need your help via donations the most! I'll need money for lodging, food, essentials, medical copays, etc... for two as my daughter must stay with me as my caregiver. I will be extremely ill! JD takes over as caregiver after 7 weeks. I must be monitored daily by the Transplant Team for Graft versus Host Disease and Infections.  After the Transplant I'll be very sick....I will even have to get all immunizations again like a newborn.  We don't know anyone that lives in the Omaha area and due to my weakened immunity cannot stay just anywhere. The most affordable prices are $65/day + 18% tax + food for 2 =$85/day approximately MEANWHILE I have extraordinary medical travel costs. I have regular appointments in Omaha (684 miles) and Sioux Falls (398 miles) plus other medical expenses preparing my body for the Transplant. I even have to receive special Dental care. I'm truly struggling and in my Doctors own words suffer from "financial toxicity".  I am so grateful for you reading my story and if you are able to donate, know it will be received with much appreciation and I'll live my life paying it forward! Please share my plea Who Am I?    I am only 49 years young and that will help with conquering this Acute Myeloid Leukemia with every loving, positive, humorous part of my Soul!   I'm blessed with 3 grown children; Callie NightPipe, Jacob Flores & Sgt. Angel Flores; 4 grown stepdaughters; Alyssa, Lucy, Haylee & Keeli. The lights of mine and JD's lives are our 11 grandbabies with 1 more on his way!!  I am extremely grateful for everyone in my life. I have lived in quite a few places, but grew up in Louisiana and now call Okreek, South Dakota home on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation.  I love my family and friends immensely. My inner most dreams are to help all of mankind and our World to be a kinder place. All I can do is start with me and be an example.  My Story!    Here I go again Kinda! I won the war against Anal Cancer not HPV+ (diagnosed 11/16/2005)! I was Stage IIIB with that aggressive cancer, I was pregnant but our son passed away 12/7/2005, had 8 weeks of radiation, some rounds of chemotherapy and NEVER returned to "healthy".  It left me disabled.                                                                  NOW ~ Officially DIAGNOSED With ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA on 7/26/2017!!!    My AML has the genetic mutation FLT3 which is a killer by itself and complicates matters for my Oncologists.  Also my chromosome 7q is missing half of itself. Another killing agent on it's own. I'm being hit hard by a killing trifecta! {▪▪I found out later from my transplant Doctor that at this time my prognosis was 5% survival rate ▪▪} I told everyone immediately that any "Googling" or such they did would be kept amongst them. I told my Oncologists and Hematologists that I did not want survival rates, percentages, ratios, etc...Two months or so prior I had just started feeling "blah" and could not get rid of it. I was always so tired and never could get anything done.  I had the craziest thing happen around June 22nd, a fly flew into my right ear and to get it out I immediately sprayed hydrogen peroxide in my ear.  Bug parts came out and I thought "Ok".  A week later the ear was hurting even though I had been cleaning it with warm soapy water.  The Doctor said my right ear was squeaky clean, but bruised up badly, irritated.  The bruising did not make any sense at all because all I had not dug into the ear!  I put the prescribed drops in it for 10 days during this time puss actually drained out of my ear.     By 7/12 I was feeling just awful, very tired, dizzy, nauseated all the time, drainage down the back of my throat, coughing a lot so I saw a Doctor.  He said I definitely had Bronchitis and was starting in on "walking pneumonia" so he prescribed an antibiotic and instructed me to follow up with my PCP.  I also pointed out to him some mystery bruises on my inner thighs.     I made an appointment with my PCP for 7/25 and while waiting had to get his advice about my Ileostomy. My Ileostomy had necrotic areas, swelling, bleeding, and was becoming painful so my PCP had me make an appointment with a surgeon to assess what was wrong there.  During the wait for my appointment I started to get a lot of mystery bruises on my back, then on my belly some on my thighs.  JD scratched my back which gave me petechiae and I noticed it in other areas. My 1st nose bleed woke me up by running down my throat and choking me. I had a constant nasal "stream" running down the back of my throat that would choke me.  I was so tired, taking a shower made my heart just pound hard in my chest.  The dizziness was insane, I fell a couple of times and my ears would feel like they needed pop.  I had convinced myself that I was probably iron deficient due to the bruises and my PCP would find it quickly.  JD kept wanting me to go to the Emergency but I told him it was going to be something silly I could wait for my appointment.    The day of my appointment was horrid...I could barely manage sitting in the car for the ride to the Doctor's office.  I truly felt very sick. I just told JD that I would be glad to see our Doctor so he could tell me which vitamin I was deficient. My Doctor listened to what all had been going, did a physical exam and ordered some labs from blood. He came back & told me that my White Blood Cell Count was 59, 825!! He said that he did not believe I had an infection somewhere raising it that much plus there were a few other items off in my labs.  He instructed me to go straight to Sioux Falls because he had referred me to a Specialist and they would be calling my cell soon.  JD & I followed his instructions and had only been at my Son's home for a few minutes when my ringer went off. I was instructed to go to the Emergency room immediately, something about being very close to a point that my brain could hemorrhage. Needless to say when I arrived at the Emergency Department they were expecting me. After more bloodwork & other labs were done I was admitted to ICU the evening of 7/25/17. Diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in the late evening of July 26, 2017. When I recovered from the initial shock I realized there was a warm, tingling,, strong feeling in my chest reassuring me that I would survive! It would be a fight but I will Live!!
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Donations 

  • Paula Coats
    • $100 
    • 6 yrs
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Dee Danzy
Organizer
Okreek, SD

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