Help me pay off my Cancer medical bills

Hello, I’m Delaney! I’m 23 years old and I’m currently in remission with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I was diagnosed with ALL back in August of 2022 and received my bone marrow transplant on March 6th of 2023. This past year has not only been hard on me physically and mentally, but financially too. I am a middle school theatre and speech teacher. Due to my diagnosis I was unable to work which meant I wasn’t getting paid. I didn’t qualify for disability income as I had to have worked over 5 years in my life, and at the time of diagnosis I had only worked 4 years. I’ve applied and received some funding to help cover my medical costs, but there is still a significant amount I owe from my treatments. I plan to go back to work this August, but would like to leave the burden of my cancer behind and start LIVING life again! This is about the amount I owe in medical bills (not including other bills I’m behind on) and I would be forever grateful for any kind of support. I have a lot more of recovering to do, but I’m excited to get back to some type of “normal.” If you would like to, you can read my Leukemia journey below. Thank you and God bless❤️

It was the summer of 2022 and I had just ended my first year of teaching. Teaching is not easy by any means and I figured my body was just tired from my first year. I visited the ER 3 different times during the summer for back pain and was misdiagnosed 3 times. I was told I rode in the car too long, I had bone spurs, and that I was putting too much weight on one foot (I had fallen down the stairs in my apartment in March and sprained my ankle). So I tried to take it easy on my back and spine. I was given medication that ended up blurring my vision. I went to the eye doctor and was rushed to see an eye specialist. They originally thought I had diabetic retinopathy from my Type 1 diabetes. They said it looked like ten years of damage which was alarming since I visit the eye doctor yearly. I was scheduled for my first eye surgery on August 18th, 2022. Everything went smoothly, until later that evening when I started having severe back pain. The back pain continued through the morning to the point I was in agony that could not be relieved. We went to the ER, where I was misdiagnosed again and told that I was just “drug seeking” and was sent home. However, after this visit I was still in pain with no relief in sight. The next night I was still in excruciating pain. Again, I had striking back pain no matter what I did to alleviate it. After over 10 baths (trying to get relief) and my heart rate over 160 we went back to the ER on the morning of August 20th, 2022. With my heart rate high they rushed me to a room quickly in the ER. We will always be thankful for Dr. Bibawi looking at my case before he left. He rushed all of my tests and got everything set up. Later that night I was told I had Leukemia and more tests would be done to clarify which type on Monday. I was in shock and in denial. I thought “Oh, this is just a small bump in the road” and “I’ll be back to work within a week”. This was not the case by any means. I stayed in the hospital for a month. During this time I received hard chemotherapy, spinal chemotherapy, and several bone marrow biopsies. I was in a sedated state just so I would stay there. If I had had it my way, I would’ve gone home and died. Luckily, I had a great support system who would not let me give up.

The next month was just as hard. I had to go in almost every day to get blood or platelets. I felt like a pin cushion, constantly getting stabbed for IVs. Home life was boring, because the eye surgery I had had with the undiagnosed Leukemia caused my eyes to be bloody. I looked like I came out of a horror film. So I couldn’t see well to watch TV, read, or craft in any way. I was isolated and alone for most of my days. It was very depressing as I am a person who has to always be doing something. I was forced to spend my golden birthday in the ER, because the chemotherapy treatment wasn’t working and my doctor sent me to get a bone marrow transplant. (Which is not how that works). I received one more round of chemotherapy, which may have been the worst one because I had the IV through my neck and could feel the infusion going in. At this point my Leukemia percentage should have been less than 10%. I was at 25%. In October, I was transferred to Texas Oncology Center at Baylor to start my bone marrow transplant journey.

The transplant journey was filled with unknowns and risks. We had to first get my Leukemia percentage to 0 before I could receive the transplant. We first tried a month long chemo called blincyto. It was both painful and annoying. It made all of my bones ache and I had to carry it around constantly in a fanny pack contraption. Then after the month, I had another bone marrow biopsy and my Leukemia percentage came back higher. The doctors had two more treatment options for me, but we had the scary talk of having to go down to Houston for a trial treatment. This terrified me and I started to come to terms that I might die. The second treatment had only just been approved for outpatient and I was the second patient to receive it. It would be 3 weeks of once a week treatment. I didn’t have high hopes for this treatment, because the other ones hadn’t worked, so why should this one? To my surprise after a recent bone marrow biopsy, on January 11th I got told I was at 0%! We were ready to start the transplant process.

The transplant process started to move quick at that point and then stopped all at once. They had found a donor from Germany, but the donor didn’t have the time to donate as soon as we needed it. Then we moved on to an American donor who also fell through for an unknown reason. It was frustrating. I was in the clear and ready to start my next chapter, but my donors were not coming through. February was a waiting game. I remember when I got the call that they had found a donor and that I would be admitted the next week. I do not know who my donor is, but I know she is from America, not blood related, and is 29 years old. I’m hopeful I will get to meet her after my 1 year mark. (This is when we will get to know who each other is). On February 27th I was admitted to the hospital for my transplant and on March 6th I received my bone marrow transplant.

The transplant process was down played and one of the darkest times of my life. A procedure that was supposed to be painless and anticlimactic was anything but. I received hard chemo the days leading up to clear out my system and ensure I stayed at 0%. The transplant itself was weird. It felt like an out of body experience where every fiber of my being was rejecting it. I remember not feeling great the days after, but was told it would get better. It didn’t get better for a long time. It actually got worse. I was constantly shaking, couldn’t get anything down, agonizing bone pain to the point it would hurt to walk or stand, uncontrollable bruising (just from rubbing my eyes I would bruise), and the constant pic line bleeding. If I wasn’t asleep on pain meds I was probably crying in pain. I remember a moment that felt like I was in a movie or tv show. My mom and Parker were switching shifts, so I was left alone. I was already crying and for some reason I decided it was a good idea to crawl on the floor into a corner. The doctor came in for the daily check, and there I was huddled, shaking, and crying in the corner. During these dark days I have to thank my nurses, especially Buffy, for putting up with me and taking care of me. They gave me space when I needed it, and tried to cheer me up when I was ok. I wish I got to say I went home because everything was going so well. Yet again, that wasn’t the case.

On March 24th, we were still in the hospital and things were improving. I was starting to eat again, go on walks, and overall generally in a good mood. All at once I started to see lines in my right eye. My eye looked normal, but I was freaking out. They did many tests to see if I had a brain bleed, but couldn’t see anything. Again I can’t brag on the nurses enough. My night nurse came with me to every test and answered every question Parker and I had. With nothing showing up the doctors decided to let me leave early to see an eye doctor that Monday. At this point I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye. When I saw the eye doctor they scheduled an immediate eye surgery. On April 7th I had my eye surgery. What was supposed to take 30 minutes took 3 hours. I haven’t told many people this, but I became officially blind in my right eye that day. It was really heart breaking. Everything I love doing I need my vision to do. I was determined to not let Leukemia take my left.

The month of April led to many Cancer ER visits from pain, needing platelets or blood. My body was still recovering from being wiped out. I am building a whole new immune system. Eventually things got under control. The number of pills I have to take started to drop. Every other day visits turned into only Mondays and Fridays. Mondays and Fridays turned into once a week. And my once a weeks turned into every other week. Day 100 post transplant came on June, 14th and my bone marrow biopsy came back all clear! I’m still in recovery and learning to listen to my body. I’m nowhere near 100% just yet, but I know I’m in a better place than I was last August.