How Chemotherapy and Leukemia Changed My Life

In the year 2002, my husband, Chad, was diagnosed with leukemia. He went through eight months of chemotherapy, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions, hospitalizations, poking and prodding. Throughout all of these tortures he was positive, happy and full of life...well, as much as he could be in a hospital bed. I know it was difficult for him to go through all that and be this way but I know he did it for my benefit. He swears the whole thing had to have been more difficult on me, watching my beloved spouse go through all of this, than it was on him. So, let's take a look back to the beginning and I'll tell the story from my point of view.

A couple of months at the end of the year 2001 went by that Chad had flu like symptoms. Neither one of us were very good about going to the doctor for illnesses. In fact, it'd been many years since either one of us had been in a doctor's office for anything. So naturally, we tried over the counter flu medications during this time and he stayed home from work a few days to get some extra rest. The odd thing was that his vision had been bothering him. He complained of having "wiggly lines" in the front of his eyes that are much different than the typical lines we can see floating in our vision at times. I pushed for him to go to a doctor but he's just as stubborn as I and it didn't happen then.