Tammy Hoagland

In 2016 Tammy was diagnosed with kappa light chain multiple myeloma- cancer of the plasma.

The story from her daughter, Jessie:
In December of 2015, my mom had a kidney function tests that came back slightly low.  In June of 2016, just barely a month after my son Ollie was born, she had a terrible pain in her side that she thought was due to something wrong with her kidneys.   She had more kidney tests to find out they were slightly lower yet, but nothing else looked out of the ordinary.  My mom is a nurse and knew something still wasn't right, so she advocated to have some more testing to see what was causing the pain.  After some scans, and other blood work, in July of 2016 the doctors found there were lesions all over her bones in her midsection,  and the pain was caused by a spontaneous fracture of her rib.  The doctors in Bemidji believed it was some kind of a myeloma,  so they sent mom for more testing at mayo.  Mom ended up at the Mayo in Lacrosse for the diagnosis of kappa light chain multiple myeloma- cancer of the plasma, and a more rare serious kind at that.   They transferred her to rochester and by looking at everything it is one of the most aggressive severe kinds they have treated.  Mom started chemo regimens by the end of August in hopes to get her to a transplant in December.   My parents came to live at a transplant house in Rochester on December 11, and hoped to get started with the transplant only to find that the cancer had apparently already become immune to the first rounds of chemo and had come back almost to the levels they had been at before treatment.   That meant more rounds of chemo before they could even attempt the transplant.  With numbers looking good at the end of January,  mom began the transplant process at the beginning of February,  and will possibly need to do a second transplant by the end of April beginning of may if everything is going okay.  Mom handled most all of the treatment really well,  however the transplant process has been miserable and she has hardly been able to keep anything down for over a week, which I guess is pretty typical.  My mom had planned on working until she was over 60, and at 56 years old she is one of the youngest ones in the transplant house with this disease.  Mom will never work again.  She and my dad who retired in November of 2015 have now become a fixed income family, and are spending much of what they have on medical care and stays in transplant houses and travel to the hospitals, etc...  They are extremely generous and loving people who have supported family and friends through trials, and it is an honor to give back to them in their time of need.  At this point, myeloma can, hopefully, be put into remission, but it never fully goes away, and will require constant testing and treatments for the rest of mom's life.   Mom and dad are deeply loved by their two children and spouses, and their 7, soon to be 8, grandchildren, who want to help ease their burdens.