Margaret's story: A life of blessings after leukemia
Margaret Marcinkowski of Johns Creek is a 27-year survivor of leukemia. When she was diagnosed in June 1998, she was 36 years old, married, the mother of three children, ages 8, 5 and 1, and starting a job search to go back to work.
This is her story, told in her own words, about the care she received from the Northside Hospital Blood and Marrow Transplant Program:
I had been feeling very tired, had some odd bruises and my stomach wasn’t feeling right. I had been complaining for a week or two to my younger brother, a pediatrician, about my stomach pains. One day, I called him again and he insisted I needed to talk to an adult doctor — not a pediatrician — and that he would hang up so I could call one right away. I didn’t have a regular doctor in the area. He assured me that doctors will see patients they have not yet met.
Fortunately, I took his advice. I hung up the phone and looked for a doctor who could see me that day. That was the beginning of my journey. I ended up in Northside Hospital that night and learned the next morning that I had acute myelogenous leukemia.
That was shattering news — in 1998, AML was still a relatively bleak diagnosis. My husband and I were reeling.
I was referred to the Blood and Marrow Transplant Group of Georgia, which had just opened its practice at Northside in April. That turned out to be the best thing that happened to me.
I met Dr. Gerry Connaghan (now retired) and Dr. Kent Holland.
I recall a conversation I had with Dr. Connaghan that first week. I told him I had never had any luck — I had never won a bingo game or any game of chance. How did I get unlucky enough to get AML? He replied, “Well, maybe you saved all the good luck you were due for this experience.” He reversed my negative thinking, and I believe that’s part of the “special sauce” of this expert group.
I began inpatient treatment in Northside’s Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, and thankfully, I went into remission. The nurses on the BMT unit and in the office were professional, confident and kind. They truly kept me positive.
During my induction, my three siblings were typed, and I learned my pediatrician brother was a bone marrow match for me — another bit of luck.
I almost didn’t believe Dr. Holland when he told me I could go home after nearly 30 days in the hospital.
I recovered for a month at home, then went through consolidation treatment. In October 1998, I began chemotherapy prep, followed by my bone marrow transplant. It was quite the experience. Back then, it was slow and painful. The sore throat and mucositis were brutal. I forced myself out of bed each day, but it wasn’t easy. One day at a time.
I soon went home and slowly recovered.
Life does go back to normal. Slowly, the constant anxiety about my health decreased. I stopped fretting about unexpected bruises or fatigue.
People ask my husband and me whether our lives are better for having gone through this experience. I think we would both say we would have been happy if I had never had leukemia. But I do know that life feels much shinier and more important than before. I am much more sentimental, even now.
I feel so blessed that I was able to raise our children with my husband, see them graduate, get jobs and get married. And the biggest treat of all — we have three grandchildren and one on the way. Sitting in the hospital, I did not dare dream of seeing these things.
Today, I am retired. I babysit my grandchildren, go for runs and walks, and I honestly do not mind seeing my gray hair or my wrinkles. I think back to how many times I lay in the hospital, wondering whether I would live long enough to know what I would look like when I was old.
I can never fully thank all the nurses, doctors, hospital staff, family and friends who carried me through this experience. But I still think of them all frequently. The doctors were beyond brilliant. The nurses were engaged, intelligent, and phenomenal at stopping problems before they could happen. From the tech who checked my blood pressure machine in the middle of the night and told me she was praying for me, to the pharmacy tech who told me he said a prayer whenever he prepared the chemo for infusion. They all had a hand in my recovery, and I think of them and the goodness that surrounded me.
