My name is Connor Burke and I am a Junior studying biochemistry at the University of Michigan. After my Freshman year, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I was 19 at the time which landed me in the "Adolescent/Young Adult" category, but my doctors put me on an aggressive treatment plan inspired by the conventional pediatric treatment protocol. While "aggressive" seems an appropriate label from a clinical perspective, one that is more descriptive from a patient's perspective would be "debilitating." For seven months, the best thing I could do for myself was to avoid health complications like getting sick, breaking bones, or excessively bleeding, because anything of this nature could force a change to the treatment plan and reduce the chance of a positive health outcome.

Implicit in this objective to avoid complications is the necessity to maintain acceptable (albeit lower than normal) blood counts. Red blood cell counts below a certain threshold increases the chance of fainting and getting hurt, and a lack of platelets makes it difficult to form a clot if I was to ever get even a small cut, allowing blood to exit and germs to enter. I was on a variety of medications to deal with symptoms and side-effects of chemotherapy, but none of them worked quite as remarkably as blood transfusions. So far, I have received six units of packed red blood cells, four units of platelets, and two units of cryoprecipitate. Fatigue is almost constant for many leukemia patients, but the transfusions of packed red blood cells gave a temporary reprieve from the fatigue when it was at its worst. The platelets and cryoprecipitate made my numbers look better on paper, and also put my mind at ease that I would not get a spontaneous bloody nose. All of the transfusions have been instrumental in allowing my treatment to progress the way it is supposed to. 

Treatment is going well, and following the intense seven months of treatment, I began the much lighter maintenance phase of treatment. If all continues to go well, I will be declared "cancer-free" in October of 2022, but even after that, I will be ineligible to donate blood due to my history of having a blood cancer. So, to help anyone who finds themselves in a position similar to mine now or any time in the future, I would encourage anyone who is able to donate blood. 

-Connor Burke, Blood Drives United Executive Team