When I started this blog almost two years ago I really thought I would do more than 6 posts but things got pretty difficult and I not only lost the ability to focus and type I lost all motivation. But better late than never right! Today is a weird day for me because it is the anniversary of the first time I was diagnosed with cancer. January 23, 2014 changed my whole life. That was the day my doctor at Mary bridge came over to my hospital bed and said "Hanna you have leukemia" I replied with "isn't that like cancer?" "No, it is cancer" he answered back. But after learning more and more about acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the type of genetic mutation I had (12:21 translocation), I learned that ALL is a very treatable cancer with very high survival rates. It was rare for kids to die from this. Not too much into treatment my doctor told my parents that he expected that I will have a "full recovery". In many ways he was right. I went through the two and a half years or chemotherapy treatment (with rare and weird side affects) and came out of it completely cancer free and a bright future ahead. Little did I know that the small print on those chemotherapy treatments that saved my life, specifically doxorubicin, said that there is an incredibly small chance that I could get a secondary cancer as a side affect. Well I in fact learned this at my three year out blood work by being that "small chance". But it wasnt just a small chance but in fact it was a less than 1% chance of getting treatment related acute myeloid leukemia. But also knowing my and my luck it honestly wasn't surprising that this happened. I would get sick from past chemo and get side affects that my doctor hadn't seen in other patients. He used to tell me "Hanna stop surprising me!". I can tell you this was the biggest surprise I ever gave him. So January 23rd was not only the beginning of ALL but really it was the beginning of sAML too. That was 7 years ago. SO much has happened since then like the two and a half years of chemo, perfect blood work for 3 years, second cancer, purple chemo, too many icu visits, a couple bleeding out emergencies, cord blood transplant, chronic gvhd, chronic kidney disease and way to many needles. If I could go back to my 13 year old self who wasn't sure if leukemia was a type of cancer and tell her what the next 8 years of her life would be im sure she would say "uh huh surrreee". But honestly, and I know this will sound insane to other people, but I would go through it all agin to be the person I am today. Confident, mature, badass, strong, courageous, UW student looking forward to be a child life specialist and a 2x cancer survivor. Not many people can say these things.
After spending the day watching Netflix and drinking an energy drink that probably had a way too much sugar, I went back and found photos of the day I was diagnosed and I found three. Two of them I was happy petting Harley and the other was a "get well" card. I don't remember being incredibly sad on that day but I know I probably was just putting up a front. So that was my day... how was yours?