Help! Andria Stevie Ward’s Leukemia battle

Well, the cat’s out of the bag, now! In late October I had some strange looking blood work results from my labs during my yearly physical. This wasn’t the first time so it wasn’t exactly alarming. I had been a medical anomaly before but this time my PCP kept wondering if it was possible that I could be bleeding internally due to my numbers not adding up. After consulting with my amazing PCP, a rheumatologist, friends that are amazing doctors, and even a great ICU nurse that I went on a date with, I referred myself to MD Anderson here in Houston to get checked out for what could possibly be CML due to other underlying symptoms that I felt were not adding up. (A lot of people have asked and my odd symptoms were extreme unexplained bruising, night sweats, itching constantly after a shower, fatigue, lots of joint pain, and mouth sores were my main concerns) Most doctors I spoke with refused my ideas and said my symptoms were due to anemia, my having had a hysterectomy, chronic sinus issues, and possibly lupus. I, being too stubborn, needed to be sure, so I self referred to MDA to get checked out.

On 12/8/22 I had a massive (27 vials) amount of blood work done at MDA and met with an initial leukemia care team. Dr. Issa was amazing and spoke with me concerning my same day results thinking that I had extreme inflammation in my body causing my iron numbers to look skewed and hoping to put me on a path to never see him again once he could follow up with me in a couple weeks after other test results would come back and he could help me deal with the inflammation and improving my iron.

I was pleased but nervous and still felt like something was off with all my bruising, fatigue, joint pain, night sweats, etc. How could this all be due to low iron and inflammation? I felt like a beat up, fragile older lady but looked relatively normal on the outside.

It was a long few weeks. In fact, my awesome online charting system with MDA was giving me all sorts of results and information with lab numbers and I was just happy to have planned my trip home to FL for the holidays. So, I stopped worrying and got on a plane to Tampa.

It was when I was returning “home” (to my condo that had frozen/busted pipes and no water, and drywall torn out all over the place during the SWA crisis of Christmas’22) that my stress elevated beyond belief. I had a new result in my online chart. This time it was about specific gene mutations. Huh? What was this all about? I stared at the results with all the red circles around little acronyms and tried to decipher what it all meant without “googling” myself to death. I paid the $8 wifi fee for my short flight so that I could continue to read about what had just landed in my lap and I sent a message to my care team to please contact me as soon as they were open and able to after the new year.

I waited a few more days and sent my results to an old friend who was a DNA scientist and asked her opinion. A couple days later I was finally able to speak with Dr. Issa… he stated that he was fairly shocked at my results and that they were very uncommon for someone my age. He stated that even MDA hadn’t really dealt with a case such as mine as it currently were on paper and that he wanted to reschedule the bone marrow biopsy to double check my results. It was true… it looked as if I had some sort of bone marrow cancer that was usually seen in people almost twice my age. What was going on?!

I went in and did the bone marrow biopsy and aspiration and waited for the results. This was agony! Not the procedure, by the way, that was fine and I did it without sedation of any sort. But the waiting was pure hell and every root I have on my head turned gray.

When the results came back I met with my care team in person and it was all confirmed… well, almost…

You see my bone marrow biopsy results just looked so vastly different from what my blood work was yielding and still none of it was very “normal” to any of these cancer experts. Now they were unsure if I had AML, CML, or MDS/MPN. Sheesh… so let’s just say I was hoping for CML.

After another ten days or so and my doctor consulting with many other Leukemia specialists the ultimate result looks like

Atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (BCR/ABL-negative)… one might think this was a good thing since it’s “CML” but not really… the word atypical throws that out the window. Now, it’s more rare than they thought and will likely develop into AML. The real kicker is that it’s a newer subclass and there’s not a ton of research out there on treatments. Not a ton of treatment has been super successful but not many people my age are even diagnosed with it. My doctors are putting me on the stem cell donor list… I do not have a full sibling, my mom has passed, and my dad is in Florida but too old to really be my donor (at a likely 50% match). I’ll be hoping for a good match and keeping everyone updated if MDA needs anyone to get tested for a tissue match, etc. I encourage everyone to sign up at Bethematch.com no matter what. I will go 2/9 to meet with the stem cell transplant team and then the financial office for stem cell transplants since they’re not covered under any insurance.

I will be starting chemo at MDA around the 20th for seven days. Then I will wait for three weeks until i have another bone marrow biopsy to see my numbers. At that point there will be another round of chemo or a 3-4 week waiting period. At this point they’re hoping to have a stem cell match and get me ready for transplant.

After the transplant, I will be an inpatient at MDA. We do not know how long this period will be depending on how my body responds but it’s at least 4 weeks usually. When I can be discharged I will need someone with me most of the time and checking in on me multiple times per day as well as taking me the .4 miles to MDA almost daily. Everything I touch will be sanitized and cleaned and I’ll be eating a specified diet and all the things you’d expect for a cancer patient in aggressive treatment. We shall see how it goes. But since I do not have a spouse or someone to live with me currently, I’ll be attempting to get home health care. This is not fully covered by insurance either. I do have short term disability but it will only pay 60% of my paycheck for 22 weeks after the initial 31 days of diagnosis. I am starting that and the FMMLA process with work, now (not fun).

Most of you know that I am a teacher and camp director and that I also own a successful pet/house sitting business on the side. I am also a rodeo captain for HLSR and many other things… right now I feel like I’m ruining my students’ end of year, rodeo for my team, possibly a lot of camp things, and so much more. I know clearly that I should not feel this way, but I do. The fact that the care team mentioned needing to speak with me about my occupation and knowing even those in remission from other blood or bone marrow cancers didn’t teach for over two years is overwhelming right now. I love my germy kids!!!

I’ll be arranging care for Honey Chicken Biscuit and my small condo to be looked in on and some other things very soon.

If you’re able to send even $5 my way, you have no idea how much it can help. If everyone I knew in the world gave $5… this could be a real blessing. Parking alone on each visit to MDA has been $11-18! I am researching grants with the ACS and LLS but have not been successful thus far. I will be working with a social worker and patient advocate at MDA, as well.

Right now I am just hoping to raise funds to get me through cost of living and paying my bills, groceries, parking, insurance, etc. excluding any payments other than copays to MDA. I have a venmo link and zelle/chase pay for those of you wanting to skip the 2.9% credit card fees on gfm (i get deducted this on the back side)

Doordash or Amazon gift cards are great and

I am also accepting lottery tickets (you know since I have a one in a million cancer why not try to win?!)…

I love you all and if you have any questions, please reach out. It’s been a whirlwind couple months!