Taking Back My Life
By Ron Peperoni, Jr.
I just want to give everyone some hope. I was written off for dead by 40 doctors in 11 months. It was finally the 41st doctor to correctly diagnose me. In those 11 months, I had 266 doctor appointments, labs, scans, etc.
And I never gave up. I went from a healthy 31-year-old weighing 170 lbs. to 110 lbs. Just by luck I landed in my wonderful lymphoma doctor’s hands, and he threw the kitchen sink at me. I then had a bone marrow transplant in March 2012. Then I experienced horrible endless GVHD of the skin. I’ve had both hips and both shoulders, and all of my teeth replaced. My eyes don’t make tears, I had shingles, C. Diff. Colitis—the list goes on. It has been a very crazy 10 years.
Changing Perspective on Numbers and Words
By Janet Walsh
Number and Word – neither are significant in and of themselves, right? At least that is how I looked at them until March 11, 2022 when they took on significance in my life beyond my wildest imagination.
Three Bone Marrow Transplants in One Family: A Struggle to Overcome the Impact of Cancer
By Lauren Smith
Ten years ago, our youngest son, Gabriel, had a bone marrow transplant due to being born with a rare disease, aplastic anemia. Immediately after he was born, we were flown to St. Louis to get treatment for him. We were blessed to have a 19-year-old donor from Germany. Overall, Gabriel did well with transplant. A year and a half later, we discovered he had cataracts but otherwise he managed well.
Sharing the Road Less Traveled
By Lela Prewitt
Those of us who’ve had a stem cell transplant and those who love and care for us are definitely on a road less traveled. More than 50,000 stem cell transplants take place globally each year. Just under 5,000 were reported in the US in 2021. We’re in a bit of an exclusive club.