Hi. My name is Shera Drake.
I went to the emergency room November 17 with a infected finger from a cut. The doctor ran blood work and told me he thought I had leukemia. The infection in my finger had gotten so bad because my immune system was so compromised from the cancer. The doctor told me the best place to be for leukemia was MD Anderson. So a few days later I was mediflighted to Houston to MD Anderson. Where I met Dr Kornblau. He confirmed I had leukemia and specifically AML - Acute Myeloid Leukemia with rare DNA mutation. I was started on a clinical trial which includes 7 rounds of chemo therapy over 7 months with the possibility that we may need to do a stem cell transplant. I am currently in the middle of the 2nd round of chemo.