Stand with Nan Against Leukemia

Nancy Evans – a mother, a wife, a grandmother (Nan), a friend, a tennis partner, a teacher, a daughter, a sister – could go on and on. Nancy Evans is one of a kind. She is our mom and our best friend.

 

On March 12, Daddy took Mama to the ER in the middle of the night for what he thought was a stroke. Flash forward 6 weeks and she is still in the hospital, on the oncology floor fighting hard for her life.

 

Our mom played tennis 4 times a week… just weeks ago and was in great shape. She had heart bypass surgery in 2017, but we would have never imagined we would be here. About 8 weeks ago, she went to the doctor for routine bloodwork and the results came back a little off. After many tests run, the diagnosis was mono. We all laughed and thought “how on earth could a 69-year-old get mono?”, but we trusted the doctors and moved forward. In the next couple of weeks, she was in and out of doctors’ offices and emergency rooms for symptoms related to mono – such as shortness of breath, zero energy, horrible pain, and the strokes mentioned before. Countless tests were being run and unfortunately, three of the CT scans were run with contrast/dye.

 

(Back to March 12) Mom was admitted to McLeod Hospital in Florence and doctors were trying to determine the cause of the strokes. All doctors attributed it to mono and Atrial fibrillation in her heart but continued searching for more clear answers. Finally, at the request of mom and her family, the doctors did blood work specifically for Lymphoma and Leukemia because the symptoms for those seemed close to that of mono. We suggested doing a bone marrow biopsy and the awesome hematologist at McLeod agreed. Up until these tests were ordered, no bloodwork was showing any signs of cancer cells or blasts.

 

We had been in McLeod for about 7 days and mom wasn’t getting any better and we weren’t getting any answers. She had now accumulated pneumonia, an infection in her liver, and other symptoms that seemed to not be directly associated with any form of mono. For several days, we had been fervently trying to get a bed at MUSC to seek the best care for mom, but all beds were full, and days were passing. Finally, on March 18, a bed became available at MUSC, and she was to be transferred by helicopter immediately, except the weather was horrible, so instead, she was transferred by ambulance. That night felt like Ground Zero. Once in the room, she couldn’t breathe, she was in multi-system organ failure and was transferred from that room directly to the ICU floor, where we stayed for two weeks. Her liver and kidneys were both not functioning properly, and she was on a 24-hour dialysis machine. A bone marrow biopsy was done and confirmed that mama has Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and that we needed to start chemotherapy immediately because of how quickly this spread. That night, we started a 7 + 3 chemotherapy regimen. Since then, there have been many ups and downs. We are on the step-down oncology floor and being monitored. She is still having trouble with her kidneys and we are praying for healing and strength daily.

 

On day 28 (twenty-eight days after Chemo started - so, on April 20) pending mom’s strength, we will have another bone marrow biopsy to see where she stands with the Leukemia and the next steps for treatment. Although we remain optimistic about those results, she is still fighting acute kidney failure, which is unrelated to cancer/chemo. It all has to do with the CT scans earlier in the story and all the contrast/dye put into her body – which should have never happened.

 

For those of you that know our mom, you can imagine that the nurses all want to be HER nurse and help care for her. She remains super sweet and so kind to everyone that walks in the room, even though some days she can barely open her eyes from exhaustion. The doctors, nurses, and care teams at MUSC have been amazing to mama!

 

She is strong. The strongest person we know and continues to amaze us. The outpour of prayers and kindness that we have received during this journey has been incredible and we can hardly fathom the number of caring people out there, all praying and sending encouragement, love, and support for our mom! 

 

Many of you have graciously asked how you can help, so we decided to start this Go Fund Me account to ease the burden of many costs associated with Nan’s hospital stay, current treatment, and treatments to come, our stay while in Florence, and now Charleston and as you can imagine, the normal costs of everyday living. This will enable us to continue focusing on Nan getting stronger and fighting the organ setback and this mean disease called cancer.

 

We appreciate you taking the time to read about Nan’s journey so far. We truly believe she is going to crush this! She has shown so many signs of strength and positivity through all that she has been through so far. She is a fighter.

 

Thank you for your support and God bless each and every one of you!!

 

Lane, Amy, Laurie, Glenn, and Nancy