In Sept. of 2002, an insect had bitten me on my left thigh. It was the first day of my first aid class at UALR. I showed up in my shorts, with a 103 fever, blisters on my lips and this huge spider bite. The instructor looked at it and said yes, I'd been bitten by a brown recluse.
I could not lower my fever and this spider bite looked bad. I went to the doctor and said I'd been bitten by something. They took my blood and they were shocked. My white blood count was 285,000. Normal is 5,000. They had never seen a white blood count this high.
They took another blood sample and again it showed 285,000. That is when they sent me to an Oncologist. He immediately did a bone marrow aspiration from my hipbone. He told me I might have leukemia and sent me home.
The next day I noticed bruises popping up all over my arms and legs. I called the doctor back and he said to come and see him. I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) on Sept. 17, 2002. I had only a 50 percent chance of survival and was scared to death! However, I took those odds and went into the hospital and started massive doses of chemotherapy. With lots of prayers, the cancer went into remission.
Ten months later, I started to get sick again. The AML was back. This time my chance of survival was a mere 20 percent. With many prayers and a positive attitude the cancer, again, went into remission.
The doctors decided I needed a stem cell transplant (bone marrow transplant). Each of my four siblings were tested for a match first. Only a 20 percent chance of a match. Doctors called and said I had matched three of my siblings. This was documented they said, as they had never seen this many matches in a family. Baylor Medical center in Dallas, TX was going to be the site of my stem cell transplant.
I matched two sisters, and one brother. They prefer males over females in this type of transplant because there is a slight chance the female's blood might be contaminated from having given birth to children. Therefore, Barry was going to be my donor. For a full week I received massive doses of different chemo drugs along with full body radiation. They killed all the white cells in my blood and my immune system. Barry was injected with medications to over produce stem cells in his body. They then harvested his stem cells (6,000,000 stem cells in one bag of blood). Just call me The Six Million Stem Cell Man.
They came into my room and it was like taking any blood transfusion...they gave me my brother's life, his stem cells. I was in Dallas until Jan 15, of 2004. I got very sick, and had to have my parents stay with me in a hospital apartment for transplant cancer patients. I could not eat. Smells made me sick. The air made me sick. I smelled everything and it was bad. One day they took me into a room and I was hooked up to five different machines. They ask if I wanted to participate in a 51-day experimental transplant drug test. They said this medication was developed at Stanford, and six other people had taken it and all five had done fine. They said I would be the seventh person in the nation to try it. I said "yes".
They injected with me shots of this medication, along with massive doses of prednisone immediately, and that night I was smelling food and eating up the refrigerator! I stayed in Dallas taking this medication for 51 days, and nothing could have gone better.
It has been 5-1/2 years since the transplant, and I have my blood checked once a month. I feel truly blessed to be alive. I have a new appreciation of life that I never had before. The massive doses of steroids they gave me caused me to develope vascular necrosis of the right hip. My hip was killing me, hurting. The femur head was dead due to steroid damage. In 2006, I had a total hip replacement, and what a relief. If that is all the damage I'll see in life from the cancer, I'll take it.
I'll be 6 years out on Oct. 22 of this year. I'll be just 6 years old. That is what the doctor said. They rebuilt my immune system by harvesting my brother's stem cells. I'm at peace with myself and God. I have to make sure my brother Barry is doing fine, because I never know when I might need him.
Todd Minor
DeValls Bluff, AR
My name is Todd Minor and this is my story.....
