Michelle is a loving mom to three very active boys and an amazing friend to many.

14 years ago, as of February 6th, Michelle was diagnosed with a rare form of Ovarian Cancer with an immature Teratoma. She underwent surgery that day and started chemotherapy shortly after. Just 3 1/2 years later, her middle son Cole, was diagnosed with an even more rare cancer; Stage IV Burkitt’s Leukemia. He too, had to undergo chemotherapy and a long road to recovery. Both of these fighters beat their cancers and came out shining on the other side.

On October 12th, Michelle went to urgent care with flu like symptoms for multiple days. Soon after getting back home, the urgent care called and sent her to the ER with very concerning lab results. She was admitted and treated for influenza A and pneumonia while multiple tests and labs were performed. On the 15th, she was told that she had been diagnosed with TMDS (Therapy Related Myelodisplastic Syndrome), another rare illness that affects her bone marrow and eliminates her own immune system. The “therapy related” portion of this diagnosis is because one of the drugs she took during her Ovarian Cancer, is the most likely cause of this syndrome. Left untreated, this would turn into Acute Leukemia.

The initial stay in the hospital was 6 nights and since then, she has had another 17 nights in the hospital at various times due to neutropenic fevers. Since her white blood cells are so low, her body cannot fight common illnesses and this usually results in a fever that sends her to the ER and results in being admitted to the hospital. She has undergone 3 rounds of “chemo-lite”, multiple transfusions of red blood cells and platelets as well as multiple bone marrow biopsies and is now getting ready for a stem cell transplant.

During this process, all of her 9 siblings were tested to see if any could be a possible match for stem cell donation (the latest version of a bone marrow transplant). She was lucky to have 2 100% matches in her family and the best candidate was her youngest brother. At the end of February, she will get one last round of, very harsh, chemotherapy while at the same time, her brother will be getting injections to stimulate production of his stem cells. On the last day of the month, they will extract the stem cells from her brother and infuse them into Michelle. This will start a 100 day clock of allowing the stem cells to create her new immune system. After a 4/5 week stay at the hospital, she will go home and continue the battle. This will be a long journey that will continue well after the 100th day.

Michelle, by far, is one of the strongest women we know and it makes us emotional just thinking about the multiple battles she and her family have faced. This most recent battle has made it very difficult for her to work or do much of anything. As you can imagine, with no immune system, she has to be very careful about being out and about.