Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sisters support woman through leukemia
Diagnosed at 28, Erin Shmalo is trying to start a family after cancer treatment.
Photo courtesy of Erin Shmalo
Erin Shmalo (right) was supported by her three younger sisters when she was diagnosed with leukemia. The four sisters are extremely close and Katie Reich Imel (from left), LeeAnn Reich and Kelley Reich all helped Shmalo through her treatment and recovery.
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Erin Shmalo was devastated when she learned the treatment for her leukemia would make her infertile, but she had little choice: either risk infertility or face almost certain death.
During her illness, Shmalo was supported by her close family including her three younger sisters -- Katie, 28, LeeAnn, 26, and Kelley, 26, who all grew up in Roanoke and helped in their unique way. Both Katie Reich Imel and LeeAnn Reich raised funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while Kelley Reich started the process this fall to donate her eggs and help her sister become pregnant.
At the time of her diagnosis, Shmalo was an active and seemingly healthy 28-year-old who was working in Atlanta as a child therapist. She ate organic foods, loved running and was even training to do a marathon to raise awareness about leukemia.
Her then-boyfriend, Daniel Shmalo, recruited her to do the marathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society when they started dating six months earlier. His mother died from myeloma when he was 7.
While training, Erin Shmalo went to a clinic to get checked out after she started to become breathless and bruised easily.
The next day, January 10, 2007, she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia called acute promyelocytic leukemia. An ambulance took her to the hospital and, three days later, she started chemotherapy for 42 straight days.
"Basically, they said we're going to get close to killing you so that we can save your life. And it felt that way," Shmalo said.
She couldn't drink and had to have her nutrition through an IV because she suffered from muscositis, which caused her mouth, throat and gastrointestinal lining to ulcerate. She also lost all of her hair.
At the end of the first cycle of treatment, Shmalo was released to an outpatient program for five days. After the fifth day, on Valentine's Day, she learned that the chemotherapy wasn't working and the cancer had actually spread.
Doctors put her on an arsenic treatment and recommended that she have a stem cell transplant. They put a port into her heart and extracted stem cells to transplant, but Shmalo stopped the process because she was concerned about infertility. After she met her boyfriend, she knew she wanted to have a child with him.
Several doctors insisted that she continue and, on Sept. 4, 2007, doctors reinfused the stem cells into her body to try to produce healthy bone marrow.
During the whole process, Shmalo's family felt helpless but remained close. Her three sisters talked to her on a daily basis and helped her emotionally.
"They didn't change a thing, which was the best thing they could have done," Shmalo said.
During treatment, Shmalo couldn't have much contact with people, but her boyfriend spent every night with her in the hospital. The experience brought them closer. When she survived, she said her boyfriend felt closure about his mother's death.
In January, a week after she completely finished treatment, Shmalo and her boyfriend eloped to Hawaii, where she wore a blond wig and a long white dress for their beach wedding.
In the world of leukemia, a person isn't completely cured until five years after a transplant, but Shmalo isn't waiting until Sept. 4, 2012, to live life to the fullest.
She recently wrote an essay about surviving leukemia that will be published by Planet Cancer, is working on a memoir about her Roanoke upbringing, and has begun trying to get pregnant. She said it's especially meaningful knowing her sister is helping her.
"I get chills when I think about it because it's a huge gift to give someone," Shmalo said. "It's just such an amazing gift."
