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Mind you, I have never stayed in a hospital overnight… barely ever went to one in New York since I had so many bad experiences…. But by 8 p.m. I was in a room and a few hours later, a tiny Indian doctor was jabbing me with a long needle for something called a bone marrow biopsy, basically seeing what’s going on with the bone marrow to get a better idea of the diagnosis of leukemia. A few hours after that, I was having all the blood sucked out of me by a machine that basically filtered out the white blood cells and replaced them with hemoglobin (red blood cells) which is what provides energy and was why I mysteriously didn’t have any.

And then they had to figure out what to do with me. My brother Rob flew in from Maryland to help figure things out and it was decided to send me to Columbus, Ohio, specifically the Arthur James Cancer Hospital, which as it turns out is one of the best hospitals in the country for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. They really know their sh*t and they’ve gotten it down to an art and a science. So I clearly was in good hands by coming here. But more important, Columbus is where my mother lives as well as my sister and her family.

I ended up staying at the James for three weeks as they further diagnosed me and started my chemotherapy, which would involve anywhere between four and eight alternating rounds of chemo. Oh, at this point I probably should mention that I didn’t have health insurance. None. Nada. Of course, Obamacare was looming on the horizon with its opportunity for people with pre-existing conditions (like leukemia) to get insurance but that was still months away and I was going into a very expensive regimen of chemotherapy plus an even more expensive process I’ll discuss later.





As luck would have it, once I was out of the hospital I would have to move in with my 80-year-old mother, which was going to be an adventure in itself. I have been living on my own in New York completely independent for 25 years; I’ve been very happy not to live with anyone. My mother, God love her, is old, verging on senility and mostly deaf and anyone who knows me and the fact that I tend to talk fast could understand the frustrations of having a conversation with this woman who is so clingy and smothering. I’m just not a fan of repeating myself or raising my voice but it’s something I’ve had to do a lot while living with her. But despite our problems, I’ve tried to make the most of it and I never take for granted that she’s allowed me into her home and is there to take care of me when I need it.

So let’s get to the next big step in my recovery. The chemo did a good job putting my leukemia in remission but I was told I had to get a bone marrow or stem cell transplant in order to avoid a relapse down the road. The problem is that they couldn’t even start the process of looking for a donor until I had health insurance. My brother and sister put in samples to see if they’d be a match - they weren’t - but what really saved the day (and my life) was the Ohio Medicaid system because three months after I applied, I was accepted and everything just started happening at a much faster pace. Within a couple days, I had not one donor match but two, and anyone who knows anything about this process knows that some people are waiting for years just for ONE match. Again, I got lucky.

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