Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) Support Group
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), also known as acute myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells. Patients with AML usually present with symptoms such as fatigue, bleeding, infection, prompting medical attention. An abnormal blood test reading will then result in further testing in a hospital with a hematologist to determine AML.
We are all out here rooting for Ollie. Let's use this discussion thread to send him our good wishes and prayers. If there are any updates on his condition, we can post them here.
The first two posts are copied from another discussion and include news about Ollie from Abby and my response to her.
The first two posts are copied from another discussion and include news about Ollie from Abby and my response to her.
Your messages have given me the strength to keep on through the difficult days. I pray that each of stay strong and continue to move forward during the difficult days. I know it is not an easy task, but it is not impossible. Being a caregiver is a task that requires us to stay focused on the better days ahead and remain strong for our loved ones.
Announcement for Ollie's passing is in the Boston Globe, Boston, MA or you may access the funeral home: www/cartmellfuneralhome.com
Please continue supporting new members to this site. One day I believe AML will have many success stories and each of you will be listed as survivors.
I will try to visit now and then to see how each of you are doing.
Love to you all,
Sally
Thank you for your words of support and encouragement. Ollie, and certainly you, as well, have given us the inspiration to support those with AML and their caregivers.
We will carry on the fight in Ollie's name and spirit.
Thank you for sharing the announcement in the Boston Globe.
Thinking of you and your family during this difficult time.
Therese
Thank you so much for your post, and thank you for sharing your wonderful Ollie with us. He has been and will continue to be my inspiration. Take care of yourself and keep writing to us.
Love,
Cliff
Thanks for posting the information about Ollie's obituary in the globe. It was just the tip if the iceberg, so to say, in what Ollie has meant to all of us, especially me. Missing him so much.
Abby
Thank you for telling us this and thank you for the encouragement.
ollie as a wise and witty and brave man has inspired me in the past and will continue to give me strength in days to come.
please take care of you and be strong.
love
Donna
We are all so sorry -- I want to especially apologize -- it seems my notifications all got shut off after the first of the year and I did not keep up with everything. I was one of the first to know Ollie when he first joined this forum and he was so positive and enriching to all of us. I know that we can all be assured that he is now freed from his ordeal and in the hands of a righteous and loving God. We will all continue to benefit for the rest of our lives from his words of encouragement and advice. We have lost a great warrior, but we have not lost the inspiration that he will continue to give to us as we carry on the fight. Thank you so much for all that you have done to support Ollie and to support all of us. -- dave
Its hard to deal with losts, specially for people as wonderful as Ollie, who left his footprint in this world....
I hope I wont hurt anybody with this post.. but, using the words of a fried of mine, ovarian-cancer-survivor who left her promising IT career to work with cancer patients, "the battle with cancer is never lost". It means, we win when we are healed, but we also win when we continue our life in heaven, free of pain and suffering.
My mother passed on June 2010 due to stomach cancer, and I have to say that I never speak about her in past tense. Iknow she is happy and free.
So, Im sure Ollie is also free, happy, and maybe, if given the chance to come back,even healthy.. he would prefer to stay where HE IS now. I bet.
So, Sally, Im with you, and Im sure Ollie is too, with all of us.
All my love
Your sentiments are right on. When my grandmother passed away in the 1980s, I would dream about her as if she were still with me. The difference is that now I can recount tales of "Mama," which all three of us children called her and laugh. Love has a way of killing you with sadness over a loss, but ultimately morphing your sadness into fond memories about someone who touched your life in so many ways. Last night I dreamed of my 88 year old mother riding on a motorcycle with me. I don't ride motorcycles and my mother would never do that. I hope that Freud would not point a finger at me, but I woke up smiling that both she and I were having so much fun together. I love my parents beyond description and know that they will not be here forever. I cannot prepare myself for losing them and, in a way, do not want to. I want to hold on to them with all my might.
I can already smile when I think about Ollie -- his wisdom, his fighting spirit and his intelligence. The value of what he taught all of us is beyond description. I will never forget this gentle soul and am so happy that I got to know him through this website, or, I should say, HIS website.
By the way, Shimauta, on a total tangent, I am very curious about the etiology of your name. You live in a Spanish speaking country, and yet your name sounds Japanese to me. If we can digress a bit, I would love to know your story.
Cliff
I emailed back and forth with Ollie several times and he even spoke with my mother (who is 66 and has ALL) by phone when she had just finished her first round of chemo. At that time we were all still in shock and disbelief about the diagnosis and road ahead. He was such a comfort, and his encouragement helped my mom quite a bit. We are way out here in California but please know that our family is thinking of you (especially today) and wish we could comfort you in return during this time. He had (has) a wonderful spirit that impacted many.
Warm regards,
Dana (mom Karen and her husband Randy)
I don't know how many people here know this, but it was actually Ollie who encouraged my to start the Alternative Treatments thread here. He even stopped into my dad's room when he was in the hospital in Boston. Dad was in a really dark place then. Depression was taking over. It was getting harder to reach him. Ollie sat by his bed and spoke to him in a way none of us in the family ever could. He spoke to dad from experience. I can't tell you the difference it made. Dad perked up big time. Ollie was such an angel.
I want to tell Sally I sorry I am. You are an amazing caregiver and wonderful woman. My thoughts are prayers are with you, your family and everyone on this board.
Ollie will never be forgotten.
Best,
Heather
I stopped coming on here because of my Dad's passing and I was going through my own battles. However, today I decided to come on and found out about Ollie's passing. He was a Great man, with a HUGE heart, he actually helped me understand who, what and why during my Dad's illness. I pray that his Family know just how special he was to people who never met him.
Prayers and Love Ollie.
xoxo,
Liza
Dids
Peace,
Andrea