I'm so sorry for all the confusion! I sometimes forget that not everyone was on here when I was on chemo.
I will try to be short and sweet..... OH wait! I already am!
Skip this post if it is too much information for you....Don't want to upset or irritate anyone.
Yes my family is a carrier for the hereditary blood disorder known as spherocytosis. It goes way back on my mother's side of the family. I was very sickly as a baby and child. I had my spleen removed at 5 years old, which was the youngest age for my family. Most made it till 11 years old or even adulthood before they began having problems.
My twins made it to 14 before 1 of my DDs had an aplastic crisis while visiting her aunt in FL. It almost killed her but thank God I am educated in the disease and knew to stand up to the doctors when they were NOT making the right decisions. I had the girls flown up here and had 1 of the top surgeons & hematologists at Seattle Children's take over. Which they found 3 extremely large gall stones in the other twin also. So, now they are both without spleens and 1 has no gall bladder. However, since they made it to 14 before the splenectomy they have developed alot of natural antibodies and are much healthier than I am.
Then when I was 32 I became near deathly ill. After alot of frustrating doctor visits and being told that I just had an eating disorder....an ER doctor did his job and got a colonoscopy going. That is when I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and they found cancerous polyps in my colon (stage I). I did 3 years on and off of a oral chemo. I have been off of the chemo since July of 2010. I had a colonoscopy last March and they have changed my status to "remission". However, the vomiting from the chemo ulcerated the lining of my esophagus and irritated the colitis. That is what I dealt with last year for 6 months. Which is why I was on a medical leave from work from February to the end of August.
Now I just get to live with a extremely weak immune system. But hey!!! I'm still alive and kicking to bug all of you!
Ok I apologize if that was to much info. I just didn't want any misconceptions. I'm just dealing with nasty tonsillitis and bad sinus infection right now.
