Help Amy Robertson Conquer Cancer Again

Hi all! My Name is Amy Robertson and this is my journey and reality of having Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I hope you can take a moment to read about my journey and give any hope and prayers if possible.

Cancer is an unpredictable disease. I was originally diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in December 2022 while I was living in Dallas, TX. At the time it was an emergent situation, and I needed to receive treatment immediately at Medical City Dallas Hospital. I received two rounds of chemotherapy (Overall, I had a total of 4 rounds of chemotherapy within a very short period of time) that made me very sick, but did put me in remission to be able to move home to Saint Joseph, Missouri, where my entire family was located and start receiving treatment at the University of Kansas Hospital. Once I was back home with my family in Late February I soon found out I needed a Bone Marrow Transplant, which I ended up receiving on May 3, 2023. My donor was my brother Pat, and I’m so grateful for his charity, sacrifice, and willingness to help me get new cells to continue my journey of being cancer-free.

Post-transplant I was then in the hospital for a month and The University of Kansas Hospital did a wonderful job at caring for me during my transplant recovery process, but it was still a very difficult time for me physically, and emotionally. I was sick daily, could not eat, had extreme mouth sores, was on intense pain medicine, oxygen, blood/platelet transfusions, was very weak, and could not sleep. It was extremely hard and it took me until around September 2023 to truly feel back to somewhat “normal”.

Once I was discharged from the hospital I had appointments, blood draws, and IV transfusions daily for a few months, then I had appointments weekly, and just recently was able to have appointments monthly. I thought to myself “Wow this is a win! I feel good, I get a second chance at life, and I can finally start going back to normal everyday things.” This was exciting for me, and I started dreaming of all the things I wanted to accomplish again. Such as going back to school, and becoming a chiropractor (my personal mission in life has always been to help and serve people) I also thought maybe I could start dating?! ;) , start a new job, pray more, explore beautiful Kansas City, make new friends, and hopefully start traveling again ( one of my passions.) I allowed myself to dream again, while slowly coming out of survival mode. It truly was wild for me to witness some of my old self coming back to life. Thanks be to God because I know first-hand that nothing crushes your creativity more than being sick, especially in the way I was.

When suffering from cancer, being sick is a full-time job. There is just so much to it, that I sometimes struggle to find the right words to describe it. I know my fellow cancer survivors/caretakers will get it, am I right?! My main caretaker was my mother. I am truly speechless, on how grateful I am to have my mother. She is the most amazing woman in the world and has sacrificed so much for me so many times. I hope you all can meet “Ms. Janey” someday. Not only have I had my mom by my side, but I have a huge family of siblings, aunts/uncles, and cousins who have helped support me through this whole process. I also have truly amazing friends who have prayed for me and supported me from afar and who I miss so much. I could not have made it this far without all of this support by my side. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for me throughout this journey.

Now, back to the C word. Unfortunately at my last monthly appointment, literally on May 3rd, 2024, exactly one year from my bone marrow transplant, (unintentionally planned), I got my routine labs done at my appointment. I thought for sure “Oh my labs will be great like they have been for a while now.” But then I got the alert on my phone that my labs were back. I went to look right away, to hopefully have another “win” moment. Unfortunately this time it didn’t come back as I thought. My hemoglobin and platelets dropped drastically. Finally, they called me back to see one of my favorite nurse practitioners (Kayla) and she started asking me all these questions about my health. I had answered no to all of them because I felt completely fine. Then the elephant in the room was addressed finally.

My favorite NP tells me what I already know “Your labs dropped” to which I responded, “Yes, drastically”. Immediately I started feeling like this wasn’t good. She then reassured me to not get too worried yet, and that the doctor would run a few more viral tests, and check my labs again on Sunday. This made me feel a little bit better. However, my anxious self was full-blown thinking of every situation possible. Thankfully I had a busy weekend ahead of me to ease my mind in the smallest way.

Sunday came, and I got my labs checked again, going through the same process. Truly hoping it was a fluke, or they stayed the same. To my disappointment, all the viral tests returned negative, and my labs had dropped even more.

My nurse practitioner reassured me again that they have so many plans in place and will push up my bone marrow biopsy to the first thing Monday to get the final answers of what is going on. I said, “Okay as long as I get the good drugs”(which is an inside joke).

On Monday I then had the biopsy done, and a few days later I had another appointment with my doctor, in which he confirmed from my biopsy results that the “c” word was back and “this was not good” From there it felt as if my doctor went from zero to 180 on what my next steps should be. He went on how I needed to be admitted to the hospital to start chemotherapy and prepare for another bone marrow transplant immediately. I was completely overwhelmed and in disbelief.

I was officially diagnosed with a relapse of Acute Myeloid Leukemia on May 7th, 2024.

Reacting to his immediate responses to my relapse I told my doctor I could not go into the hospital as my twin brothers were graduating high school and I needed to be there. From there he agreed and said I could be admitted the following week. This gave me some sense of relief. I was truly grateful to have just one more weekend of “freedom” before starting this journey again.

As the following day came around, I found out my primary insurance was canceled, and I could no longer go to KU for treatment.

This was extremely stressful and put me in a panic immediately thinking of what my next steps should be. Finally figuring out a second plan and where to go from here. I will now be going to another hospital in Missouri until my insurance is figured out, in hopes of getting down to a more root cause of why the Leukemia came back so soon. I will be starting chemotherapy again soon, and taking it day by day.

To be honest, I still feel in shock, and I feel frustrated that the AML came back so soon. Like what?!?! I’m only in my early thirties!!

Along with all the different emotions I'm feeling right now, I also have a sense of peace and determination to fight this disease once again to the best of my ability with the help of God, my family, my friends, and your support.

Healing is also a full-time job, and it is going to take my full attention to beat this disease again. Due to the nature of these treatments, and the time it takes to fight cancer, I will not be able to work full time. I will again need to rely on the help of others and the different resources available to me. With this disease, there are many unexpected costs, and so I humbly ask for your prayers and support during this time. The road ahead feels very daunting, but I know with all the support I have, I will be able to begin my fight to beat this disease.

I am going to keep everyone as updated as possible to the best of my ability, so please know more will be coming in terms of communicating my progress during this time.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to express my extreme gratitude for any help you can offer. Whether that be prayers, sharing my story with others, donations, possible advice or anything else you are graciously willing to provide for myself and my family during this time. I am going to give this fight my all with the help of the people supporting me.

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart! Please keep me in your prayers and I promise to keep you in mine!!!

Things I potentially will need help with,is living expenses, food, toiletries, paying for insurance, unexpected expenses, help with out of pocket medications/vitamins/treatments not covered by insurance, help with counseling services, and help with providing positivity during this time with recreational activities.

Thank you, again for everyone’s love and support, and prayers! I seriously could not survive without your prayers, and that amount of people that have said they are praying for me is overwhelming. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! I cannot live without your prayers ,and the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, Joseph). Please continue to pray for me, it is so powerful!

In Christ,

Amy Margaret Robertson

+JMJ+