Holy Shit. (leukaemia related)
nzshadow
5,518 Posts
last week a friend was diagnosed with leukaemia. This guy is studying to be an anethsetist, has a son who is less than a year old, a fantastic relationship and had everything going for him.To make matters worse, he was adopted as a baby thus the chances of a bone marrow donor are almost non-existant as you need marrow from family.so we have had a week of perspective. of planning and considering the future for his wife and child. Dude has been humble and grounded,logical and caring.tonight he recieved a phonecall that the hospital mixed up his blood results with someone elses. He is fine.no leukaemia, nothing.this is the best news i have heard in a long time and as there is a lack of mountaintops in this city to yell from, i thought id share it with you.Folks, kiss your loved ones tonight, life is short and we dont all get second chances.but sometimes we do.today is a good day.
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I had a similar experience as a child. I was sick for months and they kept telling me I had the flu. When they finally had blood work done my count was so low they thought I had leukemia. My mom called all of my family to start looking for possible matches for marrow. After more testing they figured out I was having a stomach bleed, but not leukemia. Thank god. I spent a lot of time in the oncology department at Children Hospital in Philly and I saw a lot of kids dying. Shit is really really bad fucking news. Glad your friend is ok. I wish for the best for dude who now has to find out he has it.
this is some "It's A Wonderful Life" type of news
If you didn't appreciate being alive before I'm sure you do now
I have utmost respect for docs, but having worked with them professionally and dealt with them from the other side, they make mistakes all the time. Not necessarilly life and death mistakes, but mistakes.
Many specialists are so wrapped up in that specialty that despite evidence to the contrary, they will hold fast to their diagnosis. I don't know how to account for it, but it happens. And in the case of a family member, we had to deal with the nuances of certain disease, in other words, you may have it, you may not, they don't really know for sure, but the specialist(whom almost every doctor we met deffered to, as he was the 'world's leading expert') would rather perform radical experimental surgery and chemo than re-examine new pictures or admit to being wrong. It is so frustrating to deal with this stuff, and then throw on the added bonus of being fully insured and being informed that most coverage WILL NOT cover said procedures(due to their radical, experimental nature, despite being done in one of the most repected cancer programs in the US).
In the end, this family member had surgery to remove the growth that was at issue, and the surgeon who performed it told the family that there was no sign of the condition the other specialist had diagnosed, but that doesn't mean that it might not still be the case in the future. So we take that as as good a diagnosis as any, and that it is just a matter of dillegence in making sure that anything gets noticed and adressed straight away.
Be your family's (and your own) health advocate, because no hospital or doc will do it for you.
NZ, congrats on your friend, sounds like he is a person of real character(and now some real perspective on life, no doubt).
Glad to hear about your friend. On the flipside, I guess someone else received a phonecall that wasn't so positive...
My good friend growing up wound up having leukemia and was adopted as well. Things were looking very bleek for a while, but he fought for 6 years years and survived.
Great to hear your friend is ok man - although I imagine that was an emotional rollercoaster for him and everyone around.
On the other hand, my brother-in-law was diagnosed with leukemia 3 years ago. He underwent the bone marrow transplant, chemo and eventually it was under control. Then this week some labs showed some of his levels were high so it's possible the cancer's back and he might have to undergo another replacement. Ugh. I guess the good news is that my BIL receives his treatment at Johns Hopkins, which is pretty much the place to be if you're fighting cancer.
This is why you buy life insurance when you start a family. Take note recently married strutters.
i'm young/luckey enough to only have lost one close friend, and it was to leukaemia
i asked where she is atm cause i thought she??s on vacation, then i received the information. that was monday.
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congratulation for you and your friend
truer words have never been spoken.
Congrats to your friend!
But I can't help but think about the phone call that OTHER guy is going to get
and yes, some other poor bastard will now have to deal with the news, that is the flipside to this story.
i am just glad that my friends son will have a father and that dude will have the chance to be the kind of father we all know he will be. (if that makes any sense).