Tara is a 24 year old single mom who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Jan. 31, 2011, just 3 months after giving birth to her son. Our families lives were changed. When Tara was 15 she was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and spent many days in the hospital during her junior and senior year in high school and had to have infusions of Remicade every 8 weeks. After graduation she attended college but during her 2nd semester she had to withdraw due to having to be hospitalized for a flare up of the Crohn’s Disease and Arthritis had attacked her joints. After a while she seemed to be doing better but in June of 2008 she was diagnosed with a Fistulating Perianal Abscess Disease and had to have surgery which took several months for her to recover. In Oct. 2009 the doctors decided to start her back on Remicade and during the 2nd infusion she had an allergic reaction and the infusion had to be stopped. In Dec. the doctors tried a new infusion medication called Tysabri and during the 2nd infusion she had another allergic reaction and the infusion had to be stopped. In March of 2010 she had another Abscess appear and had to be drained. In June, another Abscess appeared and required a colon rectal surgeon to do the surgery and place a seton drain. By the time she had her son in Oct., she had had 5 surgeries 4 requiring seton drain placement. Four days after coming home from having her son she returned again for another surgery for drainage and infection. This continued every 2 weeks or so and we kept asking the doctor to just do a total colectomy to get rid of the area that had the fistulating tunnels and all he could say was that she was too young for that, but all Tara was looking for was a solution to the problem and some relief. So in Jan. 2011 the doctors decided to try Humira to see if that would help with the problem. When the nurse came on the 27th to administer the Humira, Tara’s knee during the week had swollen to the size of large cantaloupe. The nurse said she couldn’t give her the medicine until a doctor cleared it to be OK to give it to her. Tara had several dr. appointments and tests the next day and the last dr. said to take her to the ER and have her knee seen. The ER admitted her and on Sunday an Oncologist came in the room and said that she had thought she seen Leukemic cells on a blood slide but she wouldn’t be sure until she had permission to do a bone marrow biopsy. The next morning they did the biopsy and 3 ½ hrs. later the Oncologist came back in and confirmed that Tara had Acute Myeloid Leukemia and that she was having her transferred to MD Anderson in Houston because Tara needed immediate treatment and care because of her medical condition. The doctors at MD Anderson had a plan and started treatment on Feb. 2nd with harsh chemotherapy (this is what they give to the young because they can recover from it) and after several blood and platelet transfusions and 2 white blood cell transfusions she was doing better. The Dr.’s there said she would have to have 8 chemotherapy treatments and that she should be better but she still had the underlying problem with the Fistulating Abscesses. In May we found a Colon Rectal Surgeon who said Tara had no other choice than to have surgery. In June, while her blood counts were good, she had the surgery that took months to heal and that put a hold on getting the regular chemotherapy treatments so she had a milder chemotherapy until Nov. when she started back on the harsh chemotherapy. In Jan. 2012 she developed Psuedotumor Cerebri (Intracranial High Pressure) and in Feb. she had to have a Lumbar-peritoneal Shunt placed to help drain the fluid off her brain. After several adjustments it is now working. Later in Feb. she was told that she would need a Stem Cell Transplant and would need a stem cell donor. After testing her sisters, they didn’t match, so the Stem Cell Coordinator at MD Anderson turned to the Bone Marrow Donor Registry to find a match for Tara. After 4 weeks they found 3 donors that match Tara and she is now awaiting the news as to when this transplant can be started. Tara will have to stay in Houston for almost 4 months during this process, a hospital stay of at least 30-45 days and the remainder in an apartment due to having daily blood work and having blood and platelet infusions as needed. Having to stay in Houston will cost money not budgeted in our daily life. If you can help, it would be greatly appreciated and if not, just keep Tara and our family in your prayers and pray that this transplant will give her the chance to watch her son grow up and that he will have his momma with him for a long time. We have had a lot of support from friends and family, that if it wasn’t for them I’m not sure what we would have done to get to this point in our lives. Thanks Her Mom