From BMT Newsletter September 1994 Issue #25 - BMT's for Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Reprinted by NYSERNet with permission from BMT Newsletter
In 1986, twenty-one-year-old Jean Pfaendtner was a typical college student. Studying speech and language pathology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Jean was planning a career as a speech pathologist, hoping to work with adults experiencing speech difficulties following a stroke.
But in February she began feeling very fatigued. "It continued for several months and then I started bruising easily. After several visits, the physician assistant at University Health Services sent me to the emergency room for blood tests." The results came back the next day: she had AML (acute myelogenous leukemia).
"They wanted me to check into the hospital immediately for treatment but I was very stubborn. I insisted on packing up my dorm room first - I didn't want my family going through all my stuff! The doctors were very understanding. They could see I needed to get some closure on that part of my life."
Two days later Jean entered the hospital where she stayed for 5 weeks while unundergoing induction chemotherapy. "I got into remission and thought I was all done with treatment. Then my doctor started talking about consolidation chemotherapy. I said 'I'm fine. I'm not doing it.'"
Eight months later, Jean's doctor again raised the subject of follow-up treatment. This time, however. he suggested a BMT. "My parents were very interested. but I was initially against it. My hair had grown back and I was feeling very good. We visited the BMT programs at Milwaukee and at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and I got carried along with the momentum. My brother and sisters had blood tests to see if their marrow matched. My brother Jeff was a perfect match, so I went with it."
On May 1, 1987 Jean entered Johns Hopkins for her BMT. Twenty-year-old Jeff, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the crew team, took a break from his summer rowing training to come to Baltimore to be her donor. Throughout the summer, he travelled to Baltimore twice a week to donate platelets. "I had a major race a few days after the transplant and my coach picked me up at the train station so I could go," recalls Jeff. "I adjusted the rest of my race schedule around my trips to Baltimore." (Jeff later became a member of the US National Rowing team and, one year after Jean's transplant. was a silver medalist at the World Rowing Championship in Italy.)
"I had no idea what I was getting myself into," says Jean. "I had more complications than most people including kidney and liver problems and an upper respiratory infection. In August they sent me home. They later told me that I was the sickest patient they had ever discharged. Once I got home I started to recuperate very quickly."
After staying with her father in Laurel MD for several months, she returned home to Michigan in September. "I often wonder how my younger sisters coped with the experience. Although I was recovering very well, everything centered on me. It's not something we talk about a lot."
In January 1988, Jean returned to college and completed her undergraduate work in speech pathology. She then changed her major and went to graduate school for social work. "I suffered significant hearing loss in my right ear due to one of the antibiotics they used. I decided a career in social work made more sense."
Today Jean works full time at Wayne State University, and is on the part-time Social Work faculty. She researches issues affecting people with developmental disabilities. When she's not working, she volunteers to help cancer patients, and volunteers with the BMT-Link, an organization that links BMT candidates with BMT survivors.
"Cancer treatment has a significant, long-lasting impact on your life. However, most people forget that and don't give you an opportunity to talk about it. Every year something comes up, like experiencing dry eyes, that ties back to the cancer treatment. You're not allowed to forget it, but people don't want to you talk about it either. I try to be a good listener and let people talk about whatever concerns them.
You carry the scars for a long time. Some scars, like infertility, stay with you for the rest of your life. Despite it all, I'm healthier now than I've ever been. I try not to be overly rosy about the BMT experience when talking with people. but at the same time it did wonders for me.
The electronic version of this document was created by NYSERNet, Inc. through a grant funded by the New York State Science and Technology Foundation as part of the Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse.