Lindsay's Battle With Leukemia
Donation protected
My sweet, caring, wonderful beyond measure friend has leukemia. If you know Lindsay, you know she is a beautiful soul and is the last person who should have this terrible disease. This cancer has already taken her unborn child from her, please join me in helping pay for the treatment that will not allow it to take Lindsay from us too. These funds will help support Lindsay's chemo treatment and hospital stay. Her treatment has already commenced and will last 29 days. She will be at the hospital for the duration except for possibly the last week, as you will read below. This is a message I took from Lindsay's CaringBridge site with more details:
We want to first thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of love, support, and prayers over the last 8 days. It has just filled our hearts to see how many people love us and will be with us every step of the way along this very difficult journey we now face. With so many heartbreaking, devastating, life altering changes occurring in such a very short time, we have not had a moment to really sit down and start this site, but both Erik and I are planning on updating it as we successfully battle this fight together.
Over the last week, each time I am blessed to be with my amazing beautiful daughter, and my incredibly loving husband here at the hospital, I look at them and it takes my breath away at how much I love them, and how lucky I am to be Erik's wife and Lyla's mommy. My heart is beyond bursting with so many emotions, but the biggest ones are the feelings of love, strength, and courage I am getting from them. I will fight and win over this disease with every single ounce of my body for them. And for every single person who loves me so dearly. I am truly a very blessed person to have the family and friends that I have, and I know that each and every one of them will help us along the way. I'd like to share our story so you all can continue to pray for us, love us, and support us.
I went to work on Tuesday, October 2nd for a usual day of patients, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. When I got home that evening, I was playing with Lyla on the floor and all of a sudden my lower back and the area between my shoulder blades started having uncontrollable muscle spasms. They were painful to the point that I had a tough time moving positions, and Erik tried to help me stretch and calm the muscles down. Nothing seemed to help, so I called my dear friend and doctor, in the middle of the night to ask what I should do. We assumed I "threw my back out" somehow, and I began treating my pains as such. I wasn't able to work, and I went to a massage therapist, two different chiropractors, and an orthopedic surgeon over the next 2 and a half weeks to help my spasms, and get some relief. The spasms continued to be much worse at night when I was trying to sleep, but they subsided enough during the days that I could still take care of Lyla, albeit taking it easier than normal. However, when I tried to go back to work on the 16th, I had another round of terrible muscle spasms that following evening. Each chiropractor and the orthopedic surgeon diagnosed me as having a displaced shoulder blade, and multiple displaced ribs, that were all locking my muscles into spasms. They advised setting up physical therapy and taking one more week off of work to give my muscles time to heal. Meanwhile, throughout the unfortunate muscle pain, came an incredible piece of light and happiness.....we found out on Friday, October 12th that we were pregnant. Overjoyed, I went to my doctor on Monday and the blood tests confirmed a healthy very early pregnancy. We scheduled our first ultrasound for November 5th, and we were so happy. Then exactly one week later, on Friday October 19th, everything changed forever. I woke up around 5 am with some abdominal discomfort, and assumed I was having some gastrointestinal issues. It didn't go away throughout the morning, so I called my doctor and went in for a 1:15 appointment. She did an ultrasound and discovered what appeared to be free fluid in my abdomen. I was sent to another unit of the hospital for a more in depth ultrasound, and multiple blood tests. I was diagnosed as having a ruptured hemorrhagic cyst that left blood in my abdomen, which was explaining the abdominal pain. The good news was there was still evidence of a healthy early pregnancy, not an ectopic pregnancy which was the major concern. The plan was to wait for the blood tests to come back, and as long as they looked fine, I was to return for follow up ultrasounds and blood tests over the next couple days, and there was no need for any treatment. Almost all the tests had come back by about 5:30, and I was getting ready to leave, when my doctor received a phone call from the pathologist saying that I had critically low platelets and abnormal white blood cells. I was told my platelets were 15,000 and that normal is a minimum of 150,000. My heart dropped, and I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what. My doctor took me down to get admitted to the hospital, and I called Erik right away to tell him to head there as soon as he could. I received a platelet transfusion, continual blood tests and monitoring throughout the night. My doctor began consulting with the hematology-oncology department. The likely diagnoses were either a virus (Epstein Barr or CMV), an autoimmune disease (ITP), or a bone marrow disease (leukemia or lymphoma). We were extremely scared, but of course assumed like most people would that it would have to be a virus or autoimmune disease, because in our heads there was no way it could be something that severe as the other option. After all, I wasn't feeling "sick" at all, so how could I have something that serious. The next day, Saturday October 20th, became the start of the heartbreaking and devastating news, one after another after another. The hematologist-oncologist came in with our OBGYN to tell us that the pathologists and himself looked at my blood tests and smears and determined that it was highly likely that I had one of two forms of leukemia; either AML or APL (a subset of AML). However, the results of the key diagnostic test to determine exactly which one it was would take until Monday morning to come back. In my shock, I asked how likely is highly likely and he said about 80%. He said that my spleen was extremely enlarged and my platelets had only gone up to 22,000 after the transfusion, so they would need to carefully continue to monitor me and continue blood tests every 12 hours. He then told us that the problem with APL is that it can cause very severe internal bleeding and brain bleeding, and because there is a high chance I could have that disease, I would need to immediately start on a chemotherapeutic drug to treat APL as a preventive measure. Before he even said the next few sentences, I knew what he was going to say but it didn't make it any less devastating to hear.....this drug is very toxic to a pregnancy and it will either cause a miscarriage or severe birth defects that will lead to losing the baby. I did not even understand how this could be happening as I was listening to his words. I was told that the pregnancy and abdominal pain led to the discovery of this likely leukemia, because of the chain of events that had happened beginning with the ultrasound. I tried to wrap my head around the fact that what had in essence saved my life was now going to be lost over the next few days. I was being told that in order to save my life, our baby's life would be lost. Heartbroken doesn't even begin to describe what Erik and I were feeling right then.....a highly likely leukemia diagnosis and a loss of a baby. The next two days were excruciatingly painful and scary, having to wait for the confirmation blood test on Monday morning. I was transferred to the oncology unit at the same hospital, and monitored very closely. We prayed harder than we have ever prayed for that 20% chance that it wasn't leukemia, and that this was just a terrible mistake. Monday morning, October 22nd, the oncologist and our OBGYN came in to deliver the next devastating news.....I had a different form of leukemia than expected. I had B type ALL, or B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I needed to be transferred immediately to Barnes Hospital Siteman Cancer Center, one of the nation's top cancer centers which thankfully is here in St. Louis. I got admitted Monday afternoon, and it became a whirlwind of doctors, procedures, information, and discussions throughout the week, all very difficult and overwhelming at times.. As we already understood, my situation was unique and rare due to being newly diagnosed with ALL and being pregnant. I was told on Monday that my pregnancy hormone levels were no longer rising appropriately for a normal pregnancy, so the doctors believed my body was beginning to miscarry. The oncology team and the OBGYN team together determined I would get the bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday, the 24th, and a D&C procedure under general anesthetic on Thursday, the 25th. They explained that I needed to be stable after the D&C before treatment could begin for the ALL, and they would begin treatment on Monday, the 29th. These last few days have been beyond difficult, but we have continued to be strong throughout, and each procedure has gone as planned without complications. I have had to get 4 rounds of platelet transfusions, and 1 round of whole blood transfusion, and continual tests and workups in preparation for treatment to begin. The oncology team has continued to tell us that I am young, healthy, and strong so that is a very good thing when beginning the treatment for ALL. The doctors have not wanted to inundate us with information overload, so they have told us to focus on this first phase of treatment, and take it one day at a time. They told us what to expect in this induction phase of chemotherapy for ALL, and it is an aggressive regimen of chemotherapy drugs over the next 29 days. I will likely stay at Siteman center for the entire duration of the first round of treatment, but if I'm doing well, there's a potential I could finish up the last week as outpatient. The doctors and nurses have been absolutely wonderful to us, and we know we are in the best hands possible right now.
I have continued to get to see Lyla, Erik, and my wonderful family and friends throughout this week, which has been immensely helpful in dealing with all this. Our hearts are aching, and we know our lives have changed forever, but we know that I am so incredibly strong, faithful, and brave so I will conquer this no matter what. I look at my daughter all of the time when she visits me and I know that she will continue to be my strength when this gets tough. I look at my husband and see how much he loves me and will be my rock through this battle. I look at our family and know they will be here every step of the way, loving us and supporting us. I look at our best friends and know they would do anything for us too. Despite all of the difficult things we have faced over this week, we have seen just how much we are loved by so many incredible people, and we have seen how they will help us through this no matter what. For that, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I will beat this, I will be strong, I will fight, and I will have faith that I am destined to be a survivor for many many many years to come.
Love,
Lindsay, Erik & Lyla
We want to first thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of love, support, and prayers over the last 8 days. It has just filled our hearts to see how many people love us and will be with us every step of the way along this very difficult journey we now face. With so many heartbreaking, devastating, life altering changes occurring in such a very short time, we have not had a moment to really sit down and start this site, but both Erik and I are planning on updating it as we successfully battle this fight together.
Over the last week, each time I am blessed to be with my amazing beautiful daughter, and my incredibly loving husband here at the hospital, I look at them and it takes my breath away at how much I love them, and how lucky I am to be Erik's wife and Lyla's mommy. My heart is beyond bursting with so many emotions, but the biggest ones are the feelings of love, strength, and courage I am getting from them. I will fight and win over this disease with every single ounce of my body for them. And for every single person who loves me so dearly. I am truly a very blessed person to have the family and friends that I have, and I know that each and every one of them will help us along the way. I'd like to share our story so you all can continue to pray for us, love us, and support us.
I went to work on Tuesday, October 2nd for a usual day of patients, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. When I got home that evening, I was playing with Lyla on the floor and all of a sudden my lower back and the area between my shoulder blades started having uncontrollable muscle spasms. They were painful to the point that I had a tough time moving positions, and Erik tried to help me stretch and calm the muscles down. Nothing seemed to help, so I called my dear friend and doctor, in the middle of the night to ask what I should do. We assumed I "threw my back out" somehow, and I began treating my pains as such. I wasn't able to work, and I went to a massage therapist, two different chiropractors, and an orthopedic surgeon over the next 2 and a half weeks to help my spasms, and get some relief. The spasms continued to be much worse at night when I was trying to sleep, but they subsided enough during the days that I could still take care of Lyla, albeit taking it easier than normal. However, when I tried to go back to work on the 16th, I had another round of terrible muscle spasms that following evening. Each chiropractor and the orthopedic surgeon diagnosed me as having a displaced shoulder blade, and multiple displaced ribs, that were all locking my muscles into spasms. They advised setting up physical therapy and taking one more week off of work to give my muscles time to heal. Meanwhile, throughout the unfortunate muscle pain, came an incredible piece of light and happiness.....we found out on Friday, October 12th that we were pregnant. Overjoyed, I went to my doctor on Monday and the blood tests confirmed a healthy very early pregnancy. We scheduled our first ultrasound for November 5th, and we were so happy. Then exactly one week later, on Friday October 19th, everything changed forever. I woke up around 5 am with some abdominal discomfort, and assumed I was having some gastrointestinal issues. It didn't go away throughout the morning, so I called my doctor and went in for a 1:15 appointment. She did an ultrasound and discovered what appeared to be free fluid in my abdomen. I was sent to another unit of the hospital for a more in depth ultrasound, and multiple blood tests. I was diagnosed as having a ruptured hemorrhagic cyst that left blood in my abdomen, which was explaining the abdominal pain. The good news was there was still evidence of a healthy early pregnancy, not an ectopic pregnancy which was the major concern. The plan was to wait for the blood tests to come back, and as long as they looked fine, I was to return for follow up ultrasounds and blood tests over the next couple days, and there was no need for any treatment. Almost all the tests had come back by about 5:30, and I was getting ready to leave, when my doctor received a phone call from the pathologist saying that I had critically low platelets and abnormal white blood cells. I was told my platelets were 15,000 and that normal is a minimum of 150,000. My heart dropped, and I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what. My doctor took me down to get admitted to the hospital, and I called Erik right away to tell him to head there as soon as he could. I received a platelet transfusion, continual blood tests and monitoring throughout the night. My doctor began consulting with the hematology-oncology department. The likely diagnoses were either a virus (Epstein Barr or CMV), an autoimmune disease (ITP), or a bone marrow disease (leukemia or lymphoma). We were extremely scared, but of course assumed like most people would that it would have to be a virus or autoimmune disease, because in our heads there was no way it could be something that severe as the other option. After all, I wasn't feeling "sick" at all, so how could I have something that serious. The next day, Saturday October 20th, became the start of the heartbreaking and devastating news, one after another after another. The hematologist-oncologist came in with our OBGYN to tell us that the pathologists and himself looked at my blood tests and smears and determined that it was highly likely that I had one of two forms of leukemia; either AML or APL (a subset of AML). However, the results of the key diagnostic test to determine exactly which one it was would take until Monday morning to come back. In my shock, I asked how likely is highly likely and he said about 80%. He said that my spleen was extremely enlarged and my platelets had only gone up to 22,000 after the transfusion, so they would need to carefully continue to monitor me and continue blood tests every 12 hours. He then told us that the problem with APL is that it can cause very severe internal bleeding and brain bleeding, and because there is a high chance I could have that disease, I would need to immediately start on a chemotherapeutic drug to treat APL as a preventive measure. Before he even said the next few sentences, I knew what he was going to say but it didn't make it any less devastating to hear.....this drug is very toxic to a pregnancy and it will either cause a miscarriage or severe birth defects that will lead to losing the baby. I did not even understand how this could be happening as I was listening to his words. I was told that the pregnancy and abdominal pain led to the discovery of this likely leukemia, because of the chain of events that had happened beginning with the ultrasound. I tried to wrap my head around the fact that what had in essence saved my life was now going to be lost over the next few days. I was being told that in order to save my life, our baby's life would be lost. Heartbroken doesn't even begin to describe what Erik and I were feeling right then.....a highly likely leukemia diagnosis and a loss of a baby. The next two days were excruciatingly painful and scary, having to wait for the confirmation blood test on Monday morning. I was transferred to the oncology unit at the same hospital, and monitored very closely. We prayed harder than we have ever prayed for that 20% chance that it wasn't leukemia, and that this was just a terrible mistake. Monday morning, October 22nd, the oncologist and our OBGYN came in to deliver the next devastating news.....I had a different form of leukemia than expected. I had B type ALL, or B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I needed to be transferred immediately to Barnes Hospital Siteman Cancer Center, one of the nation's top cancer centers which thankfully is here in St. Louis. I got admitted Monday afternoon, and it became a whirlwind of doctors, procedures, information, and discussions throughout the week, all very difficult and overwhelming at times.. As we already understood, my situation was unique and rare due to being newly diagnosed with ALL and being pregnant. I was told on Monday that my pregnancy hormone levels were no longer rising appropriately for a normal pregnancy, so the doctors believed my body was beginning to miscarry. The oncology team and the OBGYN team together determined I would get the bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday, the 24th, and a D&C procedure under general anesthetic on Thursday, the 25th. They explained that I needed to be stable after the D&C before treatment could begin for the ALL, and they would begin treatment on Monday, the 29th. These last few days have been beyond difficult, but we have continued to be strong throughout, and each procedure has gone as planned without complications. I have had to get 4 rounds of platelet transfusions, and 1 round of whole blood transfusion, and continual tests and workups in preparation for treatment to begin. The oncology team has continued to tell us that I am young, healthy, and strong so that is a very good thing when beginning the treatment for ALL. The doctors have not wanted to inundate us with information overload, so they have told us to focus on this first phase of treatment, and take it one day at a time. They told us what to expect in this induction phase of chemotherapy for ALL, and it is an aggressive regimen of chemotherapy drugs over the next 29 days. I will likely stay at Siteman center for the entire duration of the first round of treatment, but if I'm doing well, there's a potential I could finish up the last week as outpatient. The doctors and nurses have been absolutely wonderful to us, and we know we are in the best hands possible right now.
I have continued to get to see Lyla, Erik, and my wonderful family and friends throughout this week, which has been immensely helpful in dealing with all this. Our hearts are aching, and we know our lives have changed forever, but we know that I am so incredibly strong, faithful, and brave so I will conquer this no matter what. I look at my daughter all of the time when she visits me and I know that she will continue to be my strength when this gets tough. I look at my husband and see how much he loves me and will be my rock through this battle. I look at our family and know they will be here every step of the way, loving us and supporting us. I look at our best friends and know they would do anything for us too. Despite all of the difficult things we have faced over this week, we have seen just how much we are loved by so many incredible people, and we have seen how they will help us through this no matter what. For that, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I will beat this, I will be strong, I will fight, and I will have faith that I am destined to be a survivor for many many many years to come.
Love,
Lindsay, Erik & Lyla
Organizer and beneficiary
Morgan Turner
Organizer
Kansas City, MO
Erik Lococo
Beneficiary