Someone You Should Know

Anna Baldwin "Attitude makes all the difference," says 30-year-old Anna, who underwent an allogeneic BMT in the Spring of 1991. And what an attitude she has.

In the Fall of 1990, after repeatedly feeling fatigued during tennis lessons, Anna called her doctor and asked for iron pills. "I thought I had 'poor' blood," she said. "I was sure it was nothing serious."

She was wrong. After weeks of tests, doctors in Charlottesville, Virginia delivered the news: she had myelodysplastic syndrome (also called myelodysplasia or preleukemia), a disease in which blood cells produced by the bone marrow break apart upon entering the bloodstream.

"They said I needed a bone marrow transplant, and I said 'let's get on with it.' I wasn't afraid_perhaps out of ignorance. I didn't really know what a BMT was. Then I remembered reading an article in Family Circle about a Texas woman who'd had a BMT in Seattle. I thought 'if she could do it, so can I.'"

While doctors tested her two younger brothers to determine whether one could donate marrow, Anna tried to keep her life as normal as possible. "I refused to let fear overcome me," she said. "I kept both my mind and body active while I waited for the transplant. Though the odds were only 50/50, I was determined the BMT would be a success."

With her brother Kiki as a donor, Anna entered the hospital January 28. "They started the chemotherapy on the day I turned 29," Anna recalls, "and followed that up with 7 days of radiation. The radiation fascinated me. I was amazed a machine could emit something I couldn't see or feel, yet was capable of killing the diseased cells in my body."

By the week's end, nausea began and Anna's hair began to fall out. "I had the nurses cut my hair very short, so it wouldn't be a mess."

Though the next two weeks are a blur in Anna's memory, she does remember that at times it was tough. "I was so weak that sometimes I felt like I was barely there. Everything was a big effort, even thinking. But I was determined that no matter what, I was going to get up and walk out of that hospital."

"I made sure I did something special for myself each day. It sounds silly now, but my biggest pleasure was having an Orange Crush_it was the highlight of my day. I made sure I did it no matter how badly I felt."

"The love and care of my family and the nurses helped me get over the rough spots," Anna said. "Sometimes I was too tired to talk. My mother would just sit with me and hold my hand_that meant so much to me. When my husband came to visit, I just wanted him to hug and hold me."

"As soon as my blood counts began to rise, I began to start feeling better and I wanted OUT. The lack of privacy and my tiny room really started to get to me. I missed my freedom. I drove those poor nurses and doctors crazy until they finally let me go."

Since home was 3 1/2 hours away, Anna lived in an apartment near the transplant center for two months so she could be closely monitored. "When I finally got home it was fantastic," she said. "The hardest part was saying no to friends who wanted to visit. At first, they didn't understand how vulnerable I was to infection. Like most people, they thought that once I was out of the hospital, everything was fine."

A year and a half after her transplant, Anna is doing well, although things are still not back to normal. "I had graft-versus-host disease, and the prednisone I took for it gave me enormous bursts of energy. Now that I'm tapering off the drugs, I don't feel nearly as energetic. It's a hard transition to make."

To others about to undergo a BMT, Anna suggests looking at life as a series of mountains and valleys. "The valleys are low points, but they're also fertile ground that give you the strength to climb the great heights. If I had to decide whether or not to have a BMT again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It's tough, but you learn a lot about yourself, the realities of life, and how precious your family and friends are."

Editor's note: The Texas woman whose story Anna recalled reading prior to her transplant is Clare Buie Chaney, a recent BMT Newsletter subscriber. Clare, who lives in Texas with her husband and two sons, is four years post-transplant and doing well. She is a psychotherapist who specializes in counseling oncology patients and their families.

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