Adventure Day One – The Call
May 5, 2008- It was a day – like any other autumn day – but it would turn out to be a day like no other. The sky was blue and the air was crisp, fall in Maryland is sweet and the breeze that was blowing around the backyard made me smile as I watched the season changing.
It was Friday, October 11, 2002; I was sitting in my home office looking out over the backyard in the mid-afternoon when the house phone rang, “Is Mr. Jackson there?” “No”, I replied, “he is at his office, would you like that number?”…at that instance I knew life was changing, this was the call you always fear – just when life is going so well – the adventure takes a turn and you brace yourself for the worst.
It wasn’t three minutes later Rickey called to tell me his doctor wanted him to come to Bethesda to discuss his blood test results. You see Rickey is a diabetic and he had been feeling a little sluggish lately. He associated it with high blood sugar counts and has gone into the doctor a few weeks earlier for standard blood test. His voice was strong on the phone, “Honey I don’t think they are calling me in to tell me to eat better – it has to be something else.”
Unbeknownst to me Rickey had been notified by his doctors in late September they were forwarding his test results to Hematology and Oncology because of some “abnormalities”. Rickey thought, “Oh boy, my kidneys are acting up due to my diabetes” - he had no clue what Hematology or Oncology meant.
Rickey writes - What I Remember about October 11, 2002 –
On Friday, October 11, 2002 early in the afternoon, I received a call from a doctor in the Oncology Department at the hospital who said I needed to come in to discuss my blood tests results - I knew this couldn’t be good.
I called PJ, and then I told my boss about it, jumped on the local Metro Rail and went out to Bethesda, the hospital was an hour away from work. Two doctors took me into an office and straight-up told me, “You have AML Leukemia, Type 0 - a rare type of Leukemia and you need to start chemotherapy Monday morning.” I should have started right away, but for some reason they wanted to give me a weekend at home. They told me it was caught early, with only 55% of my cells in blast. Unusual to catch it so soon, most people wait until they are feeling deathly sick before they discover it. I asked how long I had to live - I had a brother who died of leukemia at age 43; I knew the odds weren’t good. They told me about two to three years, but they had a patient recently call them from Hawaii after 10 years in remission. Ah, hope, a glimmer. I had promised PJ I would call her as soon as I heard anything about my test results. We were thinking diabetes, how could I tell her this over the phone! But I had promised. I called home and talked to our youngest daughter, Ellie. PJ had contacted her earlier in the day to come to the house to be with her when I called. I asked Ellie that she be with her Mom, when I told her, and she was. What a heavy burden for a 19 year old. I talked to PJ and told her the news; all we could do was cry.
I left the hospital and headed home back on the Metro Rail - THE LONGEST RIDE OF MY LIFE, nothing to do on the train but to absorb what I had just been told. It must have been a one hour ride to my car and then a half an hour home - it seemed like eternity. By the time I got home I was fairly numb. I don’t remember much about that night, but I knew life would never be the same.
Until our next blog – remember life is an adventure, embrace the journey. You can make a difference one day at a time.
Share your adventure with us!
Leave a Reply