Sarah McMahon - January 24, 1995 - July 13, 2012

Sarah's Diagnosis:

After wrapping up the 2011 school year, my mom just finished her radiation for breast cancer in June, my grandfather passed away April 5^th and we went to Hawaii.

When we came back from Hawaii I got my boating license, my scuba diving license and began to work at Watermark Cruises in Downtown Annapolis but when I started to have irregular cycles, I started to worry, so we went to the doctors and I was put on a birth control pill to regulate me (September 1st). 

School was starting up again and I started feeling tired and weak, which I blamed on school, work, and theater. On one specific work day, a Saturday, on the Harbor Queen (my favorite cruise) I started getting a sore throat and everything hurt. I was developing a cold. After a week, I started having nausea in the mornings and didn’t have an appetite. I also had the occasional dizzy spell. My doctor said to see if I went off the pill for that week and I had less nausea then I would know if the pill was causing it or not. My neck and back began to ache. 

I had trouble walking up our three flights of stairs. I started to get scared.  On the 16th of September there was the homecoming football game and it was raining buckets. I decided not to go and didn't want my cold to get any worse. On Saturday the 17^th,  I pulled myself out of bed to for breakfast but got dizzy and ended up on the kitchen floor. We decided to go to the doctor. I was examined and wanted to give me Albuterol but one of the side effects was rapid heartbeat, which I already have so we decided against that one. She told us to get a nedi pot, ough medicine, and a decongestant.  My doctor said I had a virus and shouldn't go to work the next day.

On Sunday, when my mom got home from work that night she noticed multiple bruises on my legs. On Monday morning I thought I felt well enough to go to school, I had no fever that morning so I thought it would be alright. I proceeded to get myself ready for school and was heading for the bathroom when I felt another dizzy spell and slumped on the bathroom floor in my mom’s arms. 

That’s when we called the doctor and they told us to go to the ER because they thought it was related to my heart condition I was diagnosed with last year. They did and blood test and an EKG which was fine, but my blood test came back "wacky" as they said. They did a second one to make sure. And they took my parents out of the room to chat, which is never a good sign. My dad put it all together before the doctor told us that I had Leukemia.