Help Melanie Beat Leukemia - Round 2

Melanie McCarty was 24 years old when she was first diagnosed with the devastating news that hear blood work had tested positive for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. April 1, 2015, Melanie immediately went into treatment at Saint Louis University Hospital in hopes to slow down this very aggressive cancer.

Melanie did 8 days of very intensive chemotherapy and spent 24 days waiting for her immune system to come back up to be able to finally be released home for a short period of time. After a bone marrow biopsy on April 28, 2015 it was finally decided that Melanie had gone into full remission. The next issue would be how to continue to keep her into remission.

Melanie’s transferred over to The University of Kansas Cancer. For Melanie to have her highest chance of survival, her next step was decided to be a Bone Marrow Transplant. May 22, 2015 Melanie received her bone marrow transplant, which was a donation of bone marrow from her mother.

Melanie would continue to be in remission until she began to notice a hard lump on her chest. She brought this to her doctors’ attention on December 1, 2015 and they urgently began running tests. The ultrasound was the first test to diagnose the issue. They believed that the lump she had noticed was a fluid pocket under her skin. Two weeks later, the hospital made an attempt to drain the fluid pocket but unfortunately after a few attempts were unable to. They believed that it should resolve itself in a matter of weeks.

By January 28, 2016 the lump was not getting any smaller, in fact it had almost doubled in size. Another ultrasound was ordered and again, the same conclusion. This lump was just a hematoma or a chronic infection, and Melanie would need to come in again in order to get it drained.

February 1, 2016 another drainage was ordered and once again, unsuccessful at draining any fluid. The doctor that did the procedure decided that he would take a couple biopsies of the area surrounding where they believed the fluid should be.

A week later, Melanie devastating call that she had relapsed. The biopsy in her lump had tested positive for cancer associated with the Leukemia she believe was in remission. It was a very rare occurrence, called a Myeloid Sarcoma. The next day, Melanie went in for a PET scan as well as another bone marrow biopsy. The PET scan and bone marrow biopsy had confirmed that the myeloid sarcoma was the only area the cancer had reappeared.

Melanie went in for 10 days of localized radiation treatments. After the 10th treatment, the lump had not gone down as much as they expected and they decided to tact on three additional treatments.

The day radiation had finished, Melanie’s oncologists decided that it would be a good idea to bring her in for another bone marrow biopsy just to make sure the cancer had not spread back into her bones. By April 15, 2016, Melanie received the results of her bone marrow biopsy and the cancer had, in fact, gone back into her bone marrow once again.

April 18, Melanie was once again admitted to the hospital to do another 5 days of chemotherapy to get this cancer back under control.

Melanie will be spending another 4 weeks in the hospital because they will be killing her immune system again and then waiting for her to revery. May 16th, there is another biopsy scheduled to confirm that this new chemotherapy has put her into remission again. After this, her doctors will need to make the decision on what the next step will be to continue this remission for the rest of her life.

Melanie needs your financial support now more than ever. Last year, was a rough year, but adding even additional time for recovery and not being able to work, it only gets harder and harder.