WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:02.299 ^- I had spent about four weeks, I think it was maybe 00:02.299 --> 00:04.017 ^four to six weeks at combat skills training 00:04.017 --> 00:05.927 ^at Fort Hood, before I left for Afghanistan. 00:05.927 --> 00:07.698 ^It was an immediate departure, 00:07.698 --> 00:10.386 you just kind of went from one to the next. 00:10.386 --> 00:13.952 Unfortunately, about two weeks after I arrived 00:13.952 --> 00:18.119 I was just noticing that I was struggling to kind of wake up 00:18.644 --> 00:20.521 and I said, "Let me go to the gym." 00:20.521 --> 00:22.519 And so I would go to the gym and I would try to run, 00:22.519 --> 00:24.351 I think, one mile, and mind you, 00:24.351 --> 00:26.513 several weeks before I had gone, 00:26.513 --> 00:28.772 I was running three or four miles, a day. 00:28.772 --> 00:31.772 I tried to run one mile and I was struggling. 00:31.772 --> 00:34.462 I remember I had to take a flight to Kandahar, 00:34.462 --> 00:36.987 and I ran into my friend that evening, 00:36.987 --> 00:38.987 and she said, "Kimberly, you look awfully pale. 00:38.987 --> 00:41.355 "Maybe we should take you to Sick Call tomorrow." 00:41.355 --> 00:44.175 And I said "Okay," and she did, she took me to Sick Call, 00:44.175 --> 00:47.592 at Kandahar, and I remember I met a Major 00:48.289 --> 00:51.372 who took one look at me and she said, 00:51.985 --> 00:53.580 "I think we need to get you to Kandahar Hospital 00:53.580 --> 00:56.822 "for a blood draw", and I arrived at Kandahar Hospital 00:56.822 --> 00:59.047 and I remember they assigned an EMT, 00:59.047 --> 01:01.805 and they took a lab draw, and a doctor 01:01.805 --> 01:04.638 came running through and she said, 01:05.984 --> 01:08.489 "I can't even believe you're alive right now. 01:08.489 --> 01:12.211 You have no detectable platelets and a hemoglobin of three." 01:12.211 --> 01:15.603 To have no detectable platelets is extremely serious. 01:15.603 --> 01:18.248 Anything below ten thousand, you're at risk for stroke, 01:18.248 --> 01:21.774 brain hemorrhage, to have hemoglobin of three is like 01:21.774 --> 01:25.322 having one good pint of blood running through your body. 01:25.322 --> 01:27.550 The night that they were going to take me to Landstuhl, 01:27.550 --> 01:31.383 they brought a C5, and I remember they took me 01:33.059 --> 01:37.059 in an ambulance exit night, and I looked outside 01:38.667 --> 01:42.719 the ambulance window, and there's a C5 on the Tarmac, 01:42.719 --> 01:46.552 and the back is open and it's a huge aircraft. 01:47.454 --> 01:50.139 And inside the aircraft, the only thing in it 01:50.139 --> 01:53.972 is one gurney, one gurney and a ton of nurses, 01:55.242 --> 01:57.962 or people in gowns and they are all moving about, 01:57.962 --> 02:00.531 and I'm sitting in this ambulance and I'm thinking, 02:00.531 --> 02:04.198 "Surely that's not just for me," and it was. 02:05.822 --> 02:09.354 And it launched til I was met by a Colonel and a Major, 02:09.354 --> 02:10.869 and they said, "You're not going to Landstuhl, 02:10.869 --> 02:12.622 "You're going to Walter Reed." 02:12.622 --> 02:14.531 I think at that point, and they said it was in D.C., 02:14.531 --> 02:17.864 I realized just how serious things were. 02:18.055 --> 02:20.555 (light music) 02:28.835 --> 02:32.562 At that point, that was the treatment for the 02:32.562 --> 02:35.883 Aplastic Anemia, and the N.I.H. continues to follow you 02:35.883 --> 02:38.943 for multiple years after that treatment, 02:38.943 --> 02:41.562 and they just expected after follow up, that my 02:41.562 --> 02:43.736 blood counts would resolve over time. 02:43.736 --> 02:46.894 My red cells were not producing on their own, 02:46.894 --> 02:49.991 and so I was continuing to receive blood transfusions 02:49.991 --> 02:53.508 about every three weeks, but during that time 02:53.508 --> 02:55.810 I was back at work, I was continuing to work on my 02:55.810 --> 02:58.837 Masters Program, driving across town to go to school, 02:58.837 --> 03:02.237 and then every three weeks, I would go in and get blood, 03:02.237 --> 03:05.353 and then go back on my way, and keep working. 03:05.353 --> 03:07.697 Then spring time, year of 2010, 03:07.697 --> 03:09.325 my bone marrow started to work, 03:09.325 --> 03:11.510 and I stopped needing transfusions. 03:11.510 --> 03:15.603 So it was in remission from the Severe Aplastic Anemia, 03:15.603 --> 03:19.770 and the treatment worked, and by the fall of that year, 03:19.807 --> 03:21.717 I went to Professional Military Education 03:21.717 --> 03:23.584 and Squadron Officers School. 03:23.584 --> 03:25.766 I was running, again, when they told me that 03:25.766 --> 03:28.509 I wouldn't be able to do that, and in 2011, 03:28.509 --> 03:32.676 my Severe Aplastic Anemia evolved into what's called 03:32.797 --> 03:35.124 Myelodysplastic Syndrome or M.D.S., 03:35.124 --> 03:39.291 and that is a precursory chemic bone marrow failure disease. 03:39.866 --> 03:42.866 The course of action for that was to 03:42.902 --> 03:46.332 sort of continue to live, so from 2011 onward, 03:46.332 --> 03:49.227 I was selected to cross train to intel, 03:49.227 --> 03:52.780 I went to Intel School, I worked shift work, 03:52.780 --> 03:55.036 I deployed, I took PT tests. 03:55.036 --> 03:58.536 I did everything, all the while with this, 03:59.225 --> 04:02.014 while managing my Myelodysplastic Syndrome. 04:02.014 --> 04:06.097 Then in 2016, I PCS'd to Kirtland Air Force Base. 04:06.109 --> 04:09.582 I was starting to experience just some different things 04:09.582 --> 04:12.165 with my skin, and with my eyes. 04:12.168 --> 04:15.774 I was trying to keep it all together, and keep going to work 04:15.774 --> 04:19.150 but that became increasingly difficult when 04:19.150 --> 04:21.937 my platelet count started to drop. 04:21.937 --> 04:24.108 I had hoped that it was the medication that I was taking 04:24.108 --> 04:27.191 that was causing my counts to act up, 04:28.909 --> 04:33.076 and I had a bone marrow biopsy done, and unfortunately 04:33.179 --> 04:35.357 the biopsy came back to confirm that my 04:35.357 --> 04:39.524 Myelodysplastic Syndrome had evolved into Leukemia. 04:40.403 --> 04:43.747 At the moment of diagnosis, the option of 04:43.747 --> 04:47.830 being part of the Patient Squadron in San Antonio 04:49.011 --> 04:51.666 or remaining as a member of my unit 04:51.666 --> 04:54.392 was something that I discussed with my Commander 04:54.392 --> 04:57.419 and I worked very hard, and she worked very hard, 04:57.419 --> 05:00.207 to ensure that I remain a member of her unit. 05:00.207 --> 05:03.113 That I did not PCS because the intention and goal 05:03.113 --> 05:06.602 was always to get better, and come back to work. 05:06.602 --> 05:08.425 (light music) 05:08.425 --> 05:10.734 - I sit here before you, having gone through 05:10.734 --> 05:12.773 something traumatic, I had to take a knee 05:12.773 --> 05:15.592 for a while, but it was temporary. 05:15.592 --> 05:17.569 This challenge wasn't about to stop me. 05:17.569 --> 05:20.226 It was brought to bring me closer to my destiny, 05:20.226 --> 05:21.474 and sometimes you find yourselves in 05:21.474 --> 05:23.970 overwhelming, unexpected situations, 05:23.970 --> 05:26.417 and when we do, we lean on our faith, 05:26.417 --> 05:29.953 on our family, and on our friends, and I lean on my faith, 05:29.953 --> 05:33.026 and on my incredible family, and my friends still. 05:33.026 --> 05:34.745 Not every day is an easy one, 05:34.745 --> 05:37.141 but it's about believing for good things, 05:37.141 --> 05:40.376 and continuing to move forward, and choosing to live. 05:40.376 --> 05:42.293 And, I choose to live.