I was three when I was diagnosed with Leukemia for the first time. I don’t remember much of that treatment because I was so young yet my parents said it was very difficult time. Luckily, after 3 years I was cured and we thought it would never come back. However, eight years later, when I was 13, after moving to Tokyo, Japan the cancer returned. We moved to Tokyo because we had missionary friends there and felt like God was calling us there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not wanting to undergo Japanese treatments, where patient comfort isn’t the norm, we flew back to the U.S. and started treatment here. I remember some parts and not others. What I remember most clearly is being poked by needles a lot because the chemo they were giving me made me nauseous so they had to give me IV fluids. I also remember doing a lot of crafts, Lego, and watching nature documentaries on Netflix. That’s where my love of nature, and ultimately my career choice for marine\/fisheries biology came from. After tow months of chemo, the doctors realized that to save me I would need a bone marrow transplant to get rid of the cancer. My sister was a perfect match and got to be my donor. It took a long time to fully recover but every April we celebrate my new “birthday” and are so thankful that my transplant was successful and that I am still here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This challenge affected me because I was not able to do much of anything during that time. Doing schoolwork was impossible during those times so it set me back a little bit. But I pushed harder than most people my age in those years of chemo, transplant and recovery. It was a long process as I also got what is called Graft vs. Host Disease of the muscles (GVHD), about a year after my transplant. Once again I had to overcome sickness as now the transplanted bone marrow was attacking my body, deteriorating my muscles and bone. I couldn’t walk for months and was in a wheelchair. To resolve it, they gave me high-dose steroids for another year, which damaged my knee so they did surgery on my right knee. After I healed from the surgery, I could walk again, but not well. I went through 6 months of physical therapy and I grew stronger and can now walk again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through all of this, I am strong in spirit and can and will push through adversity. I am excited to move into college and use these experiences to help motivate my education and also help others along the way. One way I would like to do this is to share my love of the ocean with others. I have always had a special connection to the ocean that has brought me great joy. That is why I want to study marine biology and converse the oceans and marine species for future generations to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
~~~Abigail Schreiber<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was three when I was diagnosed with Leukemia for the first time. I don’t remember much of that treatment because I was so young yet my parents said it was very difficult time. Luckily, after 3 years I was cured and we thought it would never come back. However, eight years later, when I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}