Anna’s Leukemia & Bone Marrow Journey

ANNA’s ORIGINAL STORY:

Hello everyone. It is with a heavy heart to have to do this. I never would have thought in a million years I would be writing something like this. My name is Hannah Heerts and I am starting this page for my beautiful mom Anna Heerts. My mom, Anna, was diagnosed Thursday, January 13th with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at the St. Cloud, Minnesota hospital. This is a form of cancer of the blood and bone marrow with excess immature white blood cells. It progresses rapidly, with myeloid cells interfering with the production of normal white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. She was transferred to Rochester, Minnesota to the Mayo Clinic by ambulance immediately on Friday, January 14th. Since she arrived at Mayo Clinic she has experienced a stroke from blood clotting due to her condition that has effected her brain, heart, liver and eyesight. They chose to start intense chemotherapy Saturday, January 15th.

 

Just last week I was just laughing with my mom, we were going shopping, having dinner together, everything was normal. It wasn’t long for her symptoms to get very severe and she fell very ill. It started out with vomiting, after that her entire body pain had started, she would not eat, and was extremely fatigued and had started bruising all over her body. She would not get out of bed and when she did, she was miserable. I cared for her never thinking it was something this severe. She remained home in bed for four days until we knew she needed to go into emergency.

 

I would have never thought that this would happen to someone as strong and beautiful of a person as her. It has completely broken my heart. She is the strongest, most kind hearted, selfless person I know. She has always been the one that has put everyone else before herself. She has always gone out of her way to help everyone else that surrounds her without any hesitation. She has been there for me so much in my life, and especially over the last few years when I have been struggling. She has also been caring for my 13 year old brother, Andrew, all on her own as a single mother, who’s life is now going be effected dramatically. Anyone who knows my mom knows how amazing of a person she is. This has been tough on everyone in her life.

 

Going through something like this, especially during these difficult times of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, I realize the severity this is going to be for her. It will be hard financially with personal assets, bills, caring for my brother, her son, and especially all of her medical bills. It has now come time that I ask for help from the public, friends, and family. No matter what you can donate, even

the smallest amount, or even words of encouragement, and support would be appreciated at this point. I want to take the time to thank everyone now for their support to help my mom, Anna, beat cancer. ❤️

*** FINALLY AN UPDATE!*****

For the last 2 years, my mom, Anna Heerts, has been undergoing regular chemotherapy to remain in remission from AML. (Acute Myeloid Leukemia)

She ended up being able to come home to my brother Andrew and I for only the last year, after spending months getting treatments and recovering from the initial diagnosis.

Within the last year, she has continued to struggle with unbearable complications with her health, no matter the treatments or chemotherapy.

After unbelievable complications in the beginning for her, when she was first diagnosed, she was only given a life expectancy of 5 more years. This obviously was not going to be accepted as a dead end, or lost hope. Being told to just accept death, knowing there are actually options, no matter the risk, was just not an option. Other opinions were sought out and searched for. After life saving efforts, followed by months of appointments at Mayo Clinic, they eventually told her they would not even offer her the option of a stem cell/bone marrow transplant, as they deemed it “too risky, or dangerous” with everything she had already been though physically. They also were “searching for a match” for her for months! We don’t give up, she didn’t give up. She will fight and we have been fighting together. She got a second opinion from the University of Minnesota Fairview Health. After doing extensive testing with them, her doctors decided they would search for a donor for her to be able to follow through with a transplant, obviously explaining what could positively or negatively come from it. Unlike Mayo Clinic, it was very shortly the U of M found a donor as a perfect match, where somehow Mayo Clinic claimed to have extensively searched for months. This donor they found was said to be from Germany. My mom did everything in the week before her said transplant to prepare for it, which is an exhausting process. 48 hours before she was supposed to get her transplant, her donor fell through and said they could not provide their donation to her anymore in an email to her doctor without any explanation as to why. We waited 1 more month to be able to find another donor and get another green light to go through with it. She received her bone marrow/stem cell transplant on September 26th, 2023 donated by a female in her 30’s somewhere in the United States.

Overall, there has been a lot of pain throughout this experience for her, and for everyone who loves her. The outcomes of this transplant will be a very tough road ahead, and there could easily be complications that would make her very sick at times during her recovery. She will be in the hospital at the U of M Fairview for the next month, while they monitor how her body responds to the procedure very closely. After that, she will be relocating near the hospital to a recovery/rehabilitation home, “Place of Hope” for another 3 months. The understanding at her rehabilitation home is that someone of family or friends are consistently there 24 hours around the clock to monitor her recovery and be there with her at all times. She is going to need a lot of love and support!

I apologize that I have never updated this. There has been a lot more that has happened since the beginning of all of this, as far as what she has gone though, but I never could find the time or strength to continue to put our families personal struggles and business out there.

However, right now, at another very serious point in her battle, I’m asking if you could please keep my mom in your positive thoughts, prayers, and hearts, as she continues to fight! She is someone who deserves the world! Everyone who she has ever made an impact on, or has met her, knows how amazing she truly is, and are lucky to be able to call her a friend, a teacher, an influence, a mentor, and for me, a mother.