She Was Told She Had A Sinus Infection, But It Was Leukemia
For months, Breeze Hunter, a 22-year-old college student at Texas A&M University, had been feeling some pain and pressure in her head. She went to the clinic a few times and was told that she had a sinus infection.
But then, she became too weak to walk to her classes and struggled to climb stairs. So, she got a blood test done, and the doctors instructed her to go to the emergency room right away.
“I had many people coming in and saying, ‘It’s looking like a sign of leukemia, but we’ll keep testing because it could be a bunch of other things,'” Hunter recalled.
The next morning, a doctor from MD Anderson Cancer Center talked to Hunter and confirmed that she had acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive type of blood cancer. She needed to stay in the hospital for treatment, which consisted of seven days of chemotherapy with a pill.
After 21 days, her bone marrow was tested to see if the treatment worked. She then did a second round of chemotherapy for seven days. The treatment was so effective that she did not need to do any more rounds.
Her 21-year-old brother Roy was the perfect match for a stem cell transplant. After going through 11 rounds of radiation and a new round of chemotherapy, she got the transplant.
“I got a radiation/chemo burn all over my body, which was very, very painful, and I was pretty much burnt all over,” Hunter said.
She had to stay in the hospital for more than a month to make sure her recovery went smoothly and to protect her from potential infection.
While in the hospital, she posted a video of herself giving a tour of her 200-square-foot room, which she made more homey.
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First, she pointed out a wall filled with letters and posters. Next, she showed off her manual and electric wheelchairs.
There were lots of decorations up and even a bed set up in the corner for her boyfriend. Additionally, she had a wide selection of pajamas, robes, and slippers to choose from in her “walk-in closet.”
Hunter will be able to walk in her college graduation in May 2025. It will be the first time in a long time that she has been able to be around such a large crowd of people.
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