Westchester/Hudson Valley

Hi, I am John Kissam , I am 56 years old and a 5 year survivor of Hodgkins Lymphoma. My journey with blood cancer begins on Dec 11^th 2006?I was officially informed that I had Hodgkins Lymphoma. And I was thrilled ........ No seriously I was! I had just spent the last few days gathering information on blood cancer from the internet and I had learned about The Leukemia Lymphoma Society and that the funds raised for research and clinical trials 25 years ago had helped more than triple a Hodgkins patient chances of survival from a dismal 25% to a very optimistic 80% for me. And that this type of blood cancer is possibly even curable. How Awesome is that! My treatment plan included 12 chemotherapy treatments, one month off for good behavior and then 17 radiation treatments. A plan that had Awesome results! I could easily spent an hour or two telling you what LLS has done and continues to do for me, my family, and what they do for all blood cancer patients everyday. If I was asked to describe what LLS gives blood cancer patients in one word it would be ........ HOPE.

I was sent this card a few weeks ago. "Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so powerful as hope. With hope. one can think, one can work, one can dream, If you have hope, you have everything." LLS gives all blood cancer patients HOPE.

Anthony- Acute Myeloid Leukemia

After taking a year to get my physical condition in shape, I had spent the entire winter training for the Pawling Sprint Triathlon, and the NYC Olympic Triathlon. I had a great winter filled with snowboarding, running, biking, and swimming. Some time in April, I started to notice my training was hitting a wall. Working out in the gym started to stall, and all my distances started to either pause, or fall off a bit. The week before my sprint triathlon, my sister convinced me to move up a physical I had scheduled later that month, and had me get my blood work done the Wednesday before my first ever triathlon. After some panicked phone calls, some disbelieving doctors (after hearing I rode my bike for 14 miles the day before my first blood test, the doctor said "There must have been a lab error, no way you could ride that far with a hemoglobin of 5"), a hospital visit, and a bone marrow biopsy, that Friday, June 1st, I was unofficially (but kind of officially) diagnosed with leukemia. I was admitted to NY Presbyterian that Monday, where the tests were repeated, confirmed, and the diagnosis was narrowed down to Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

So far, I've gone through one successful induction chemotherapy, and one round of consolidation. The plan for the future is currently up in the air (either more chemo, or a bone marrow transplant), as I fit into the unfortunate "intermediate" risk group where there isn't a particularly clear choice for treatment options. Aside from that, I'm continuing to bike and lift and live my life as much as I can, while working around the restraints of repeated hospital visits and multiple tests and the general nonsense of being a cancer patient. I maintain a blog (http://effleukemia.com/ ) where I talk about what I'm going through, and I've generally tried to be open and honest about what it's like being diagnosed at the ripe old age of 27. I hope that my story can help someone, somewhere, in some way. If I have to suffer, at least let my suffering help somebody else suffer less.