Help Megan Fight Leukemia - Round 2!
Donation protected
In 2016, I was diagnosed with second stage, HER2+ breast cancer. As a healthy, active person my entire life, it was a shocking diagnosis but through multiple rounds of chemo and surgeries, my breast cancer successfully went into remission. You can read more about that here .
In June 2018, however, my body began to feel strange. My bones ached and walking on my right leg became difficult. They told me I had a pulled muscle - I like to run miles, go on rigorous hikes in the Columbia River Gorge, climb mountains. But I pushed for more tests and my oncologist advocated for them, pressing for answers because very quickly it became apparent that it wasn't just an athletic injury. The tests were fine at first but then...they weren’t. Then I was diagnosed with something crushing. Leukemia feels like a loaded word. I can’t quite wrap my head around it. I think about all of the other ways I wanted life to look like and couldn’t have imagined this in a million years. They tell me it's incredibly rare, less than 1% of cases, but that it happens and that it's a direct result of the chemo they gave me for breast cancer and that there's nothing I could have done to prevent it.
The funds I raise here will help cover my medical bills that could eventually be more than $100k. They'll help cover my living expenses and bills while I'm out of work with the most immediate needs covering housing, medical bills, and my car. This was not planned and it hurts my heart in so many ways to go through it again, but I've fought like hell before to heal and I'll do it again. I want this to mean something not only to me but to inspire everyone that's on this journey with me.
UPDATE 1: I was immediately admitted to the hospital following my diagnosis and in-patient for 4-6 weeks for 7 days of continuous chemo while we wait for the results of my bone marrow biopsy to find out if I'll need a bone marrow transplant. In the past ten years, I've been busy building my career by going to grad school and working full-time in advertising and social media. I'm also an artist . However, in light of this ongoing, rigorous treatment for leukemia I've chosen to pause work for the moment and most likely won't resume for at least a year.
UPDATE 2: Maintenance chemo took me back into the hospital but we're still in remission!
UPDATE 3: The support has been absolutely overwhelming and I can't thank everyone enough for your generosity! We have a fundraiser coming up later this year, but in the meantime, it looks like I'm most likely need to have a bone marrow transplant. If you're curious, here are links to the national bone marrow database below. Consider signing up for the registry and donating today!
https://bethematch.org
https://bethematch.org/patients-and-families/about-transplant/what-is-a-bone-marrow-transplant
UPDATE 4 (12/15): I'm successfully out of my bone marrow transplant! My Day Zero, my new Re-brthday!, happened the day before Thanksgiving and I spent about three and a half weeks total but am home now. Day +24! We're keeping an eye out for any complications but so far so good - I'm up and about walking every day, staying active, visiting with friends here at my house, and making art. Next big milestones: Get to Day 100 without major incident (that's a super crucial window right after a transplant), celebrate my birthday on February 14 and one year anniversary with my love, and a California road trip in April. Until then, it's one day at a time, eyes on the prize.
UPDATE 5 (11/7): I'm back on GoFundMe with a new goal and an update. I've relapsed. After nine months of healing after my bone marrow transplant, good counts, and feeling healthier every day, I found out the leukemia is back. It's a very scary prognosis to relapse before you're one year out from your transplant but I'm on an outpatient chemo regimen right now that will hopefully, slowly but surely, help control the disease enough to think about topping off my system with some of the remaining donor cells or to seek a second stem cell transplant. My health insurance is awful right now and I've had to beg and plead and find so many other ways to get one of my chemo drugs paid for because most of the research is around 75+ year old patients. It sucks having the "Golden Girls Cancer" when you're a young woman. There are scary statistics and bleak survival stories for my situation BUT I am not a statistic and right now, it looks like the new chemo may be working. In the past three months, I've incurred nearly $9k in medical bills from office visits, treatment, and lab work etc and it's only going to go up, plus I continue to not be able to work full-time. Any support is welcome and appreciated so much!
Thank you for everything! Love to you all always.
Xo - Megan
http://megankrzmarzickart.com
http://instagram.com/messengerbird
In June 2018, however, my body began to feel strange. My bones ached and walking on my right leg became difficult. They told me I had a pulled muscle - I like to run miles, go on rigorous hikes in the Columbia River Gorge, climb mountains. But I pushed for more tests and my oncologist advocated for them, pressing for answers because very quickly it became apparent that it wasn't just an athletic injury. The tests were fine at first but then...they weren’t. Then I was diagnosed with something crushing. Leukemia feels like a loaded word. I can’t quite wrap my head around it. I think about all of the other ways I wanted life to look like and couldn’t have imagined this in a million years. They tell me it's incredibly rare, less than 1% of cases, but that it happens and that it's a direct result of the chemo they gave me for breast cancer and that there's nothing I could have done to prevent it.
The funds I raise here will help cover my medical bills that could eventually be more than $100k. They'll help cover my living expenses and bills while I'm out of work with the most immediate needs covering housing, medical bills, and my car. This was not planned and it hurts my heart in so many ways to go through it again, but I've fought like hell before to heal and I'll do it again. I want this to mean something not only to me but to inspire everyone that's on this journey with me.
UPDATE 1: I was immediately admitted to the hospital following my diagnosis and in-patient for 4-6 weeks for 7 days of continuous chemo while we wait for the results of my bone marrow biopsy to find out if I'll need a bone marrow transplant. In the past ten years, I've been busy building my career by going to grad school and working full-time in advertising and social media. I'm also an artist . However, in light of this ongoing, rigorous treatment for leukemia I've chosen to pause work for the moment and most likely won't resume for at least a year.
UPDATE 2: Maintenance chemo took me back into the hospital but we're still in remission!
UPDATE 3: The support has been absolutely overwhelming and I can't thank everyone enough for your generosity! We have a fundraiser coming up later this year, but in the meantime, it looks like I'm most likely need to have a bone marrow transplant. If you're curious, here are links to the national bone marrow database below. Consider signing up for the registry and donating today!
https://bethematch.org
https://bethematch.org/patients-and-families/about-transplant/what-is-a-bone-marrow-transplant
UPDATE 4 (12/15): I'm successfully out of my bone marrow transplant! My Day Zero, my new Re-brthday!, happened the day before Thanksgiving and I spent about three and a half weeks total but am home now. Day +24! We're keeping an eye out for any complications but so far so good - I'm up and about walking every day, staying active, visiting with friends here at my house, and making art. Next big milestones: Get to Day 100 without major incident (that's a super crucial window right after a transplant), celebrate my birthday on February 14 and one year anniversary with my love, and a California road trip in April. Until then, it's one day at a time, eyes on the prize.
UPDATE 5 (11/7): I'm back on GoFundMe with a new goal and an update. I've relapsed. After nine months of healing after my bone marrow transplant, good counts, and feeling healthier every day, I found out the leukemia is back. It's a very scary prognosis to relapse before you're one year out from your transplant but I'm on an outpatient chemo regimen right now that will hopefully, slowly but surely, help control the disease enough to think about topping off my system with some of the remaining donor cells or to seek a second stem cell transplant. My health insurance is awful right now and I've had to beg and plead and find so many other ways to get one of my chemo drugs paid for because most of the research is around 75+ year old patients. It sucks having the "Golden Girls Cancer" when you're a young woman. There are scary statistics and bleak survival stories for my situation BUT I am not a statistic and right now, it looks like the new chemo may be working. In the past three months, I've incurred nearly $9k in medical bills from office visits, treatment, and lab work etc and it's only going to go up, plus I continue to not be able to work full-time. Any support is welcome and appreciated so much!
Thank you for everything! Love to you all always.
Xo - Megan
http://megankrzmarzickart.com
http://instagram.com/messengerbird
Organizer
Megan Krzmarzick
Organizer
Portland, OR
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