A Day Unlike Any Other
by Whitley Hill
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Lisa and Nancy Harvey |
Sick as she was, weak as she was, 14-year-old Lisa Harvey sat up in her hospital
bed and typed these words into her Web log:
“November 10, 2003: The day started off slow, as an IV machine went off
beeping and waking me up. The day was just the same as any other day I spent
in the hospital. Just lying in bed trying to sleep away all that’s going
on, trying not to let anything sink into my brain … Slept more, got woken
up for a shower. Went back to bed, tired and weary. Another day … just
another day. I get the drugs, everyone anxious. I didn’t really think
much. I just laid there, waiting. Not thinking. It’s here. The huge bag
of blood and marrow. Just a simple step and it’s dripping through the
tubes into my blood. I think to myself, this day isn’t like any other
day. This is the day someone saved my life.”
Before August of 2002, Harvey was just a typical, happy, healthy 13-year-old
from Chelsea, Michigan. But that summer, she came home from camp looking different.
Her mother, Nancy Harvey, recalls, “Her coloring was a little off, and
she had bruising and swollen gums. I went online and searched ‘anemia’
first. But something made me look under ‘leukemia,’ too, and when
I read that swollen gums were a symptom, I called the doctor and said, ‘I
want blood work done, stat.’” Lisa went to the doctor on August
28 and was admitted to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital that night. The diagnosis:
adult leukemia. She had been in eighth grade for three days.
“Your world changes in a heartbeat,” says Nancy Harvey. “Nothing’s
normal again. ‘Normal’ was August 27, 2002. August 28 was no longer
normal.”
Four months of aggressive chemotherapy put Lisa’s cancer into remission,
and the family let down their guard. But by August 2003, her blood counts were
dropping rapidly. Lisa’s doctor, Jim Williams (who has since moved to
Phoenix) had tears in his eyes as he told the stunned family Lisa had relapsed.
Nancy Harvey says, “We were devastated. She was just starting to get her
life back and I was not prepared. She didn’t look sick anymore; her hair
had come back in beautifully. I just thought she’d beat it with chemo
alone. Plus, Lisa has a certain chromosome that upped her survival rate to 80
percent, but she ended up being the first of the kids on the floor to relapse
… ”
The next step: a bone marrow transplant. Lisa is adopted, which made the search
for a compatible donor more challenging. Her family, two biological half-sisters
and friends all were checked, but no one came close. But the National Marrow
Donor Program Registry had good news: a donor with 10 out of 10 points.
This time, the chemo leading up to the transplant was intense, painful and lonely
for the bright and popular teenager. She spent months in the hospital, unable
to see her friends or even go outside for fresh air. Then followed the transplant
itself: the blood and marrow of a stranger entering her body and immediately
setting to work to kill off the cancerous cells.
As for graft-versus-host disease, the most perilous complication of BMT, it
simply never happened. Today, Lisa prides herself on her almost uncanny awareness
of her body. “They told me, ‘You’re probably going to get
graft-versus-host disease.’ And I said, ‘Uh, no — I’m
not gonna get it.’ Then a half-year out, they said, ‘Well, you might
still get it …’ and I said, ‘I told you: I’m not gonna
get it!’” A year later with no sign of GVHD, Lisa slyly told her
doctors, “I told you so!”
After a year had passed since her transplant — the prescribed waiting
period before donors and recipients contact each other — Lisa received
a call from a young woman named Angie, a Head Start teacher from Tennessee who
had donated the bone marrow Lisa received. In June, the Harveys — and
a television crew — were at Detroit Metro Airport to greet Angie as she
arrived for a six-day visit. Together, Lisa and Angie cut the ribbon for the
local Relay for Life race, and participated in the run.
Today, Lisa is 16 years old. At camp this summer, she studied printing, drawing,
mosaics and ceramics intensively. She is enjoying a normal year in high school.
And she says the experience of her illness has changed her deeply.
“I’ve learned how to listen to my body really well,” she says.
“I’ve learned to believe that everything happens for a reason, and
that my cancer happened to me so that I could learn how to handle life better.
I definitely became more patient and so much more observant. I remember once,
after isolation, on the ride home I was in awe of how everything looked. I remembered
it all, but it was so much more precious.”
Lisa says that despite lacking some physical endurance and experiencing some
lingering “hair issues,” she feels great — and an almost inexpressible
gratitude to her donor. “There really are no words,” she says. “It’s
sort of crazy — Angie has seasonal allergies and she gave them to me!
Thanks a lot, Angie!” she jokes. Then she pauses and adds, “It’s
just a neat thing. Instead of one person, you’re like two. In a way, it’s
quite symbolic of the whole process of someone saving your life and always being
a part of you … ”
Also:
A Day Unlike Any Other
Nurses and clinical care coordinators
More translational research initiatives underway in the U-M Blood and Marrow Transplant Program
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