Jody: Leukemia Survivor
Jody Lamparelli was feeling optimistic as she went to her dental appointment on September 11, 2013. She had just spent a weekend enjoying herself at the beach and had taken time off from the job she loved, working as the billing manager for a cosmetic dermatologist in Mystic, so that her dentist could extract teeth to make room for her new crown bridge.
“Two days after my dental surgery, I was in still in pain and unable to keep the pain medicine down,” recalls Jody. “My dentist immediately arranged for me to be seen at the Emergency Department at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital near my home in Waterford. They did blood work because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.”
“To my surprise, they said ‘We think you have leukemia.’ They put me in an ambulance and sent me to Smilow Cancer Hospital.” The diagnosis: AML - Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia, cancer of the blood and bone marrow. A type of cancer that usually gets worse quickly if it is not treated.
“It all happened so fast. My world was turned upside down in a few days. Little did I know that it would be a long, arduous year before I would be able to go back to work. And that it would be at a different job.”
“I was blindsided, I didn’t see it coming. I couldn’t fathom I was that sick,” said Jody. “My doctor, Nikolai Podoltsev, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Hematology at Yale, started me on a clinical trial. But then everything went wrong. My body reacted adversely to the drugs and I stayed in the hospital through September and October and several times I ended up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I came through it, but I couldn’t walk, couldn’t even move my toes. I was sent to the Hospital for Special Care for rehab and in 16 days I learned to walk again. I remember one November day when a nurse walked me outside. She helped me out of my wheelchair and I hugged a tree. I hadn’t been outside in so long that seeing the trees and smelling the air was incredible.”
“I went back to Smilow to continue the clinical trial. From December until May 2014, one week a month I would take chemo pills at home for three days, then was admitted to Smilow Cancer Hospital for four days. The rest of the month, we’d drive back for blood and platelet transfusions.”
“I can’t say enough about Smilow. Having Dr. Podoltsev and the team there was such an amazing experience. Every single person I came in contact with - from the specialists around my bed, to the nurses who couldn’t do enough for me, to the person who cleaned my room—everyone was so caring. The highest quality people I have ever been involved with. That’s why I had such a good attitude throughout my whole experience. I was always positive. All the time I believed I was going to be ok.”
“When I finished my treatments and was getting platelets and blood in May 2014, I thought I could go back to my old life. For ten years before I got sick, I had always looked at myself through my job. But the office I had left that Monday in September wasn’t the same place when I went back. They had to go on without me. It had changed so much, it was not my job anymore. I had lost my identity. I felt very fragile. I had been so cared for at Smilow, surrounded by people who were so loving. Getting thrown back into the real world again was hard.”
“I became depressed. Dr. Podoltsev suggested I go to the Survivorship Clinic at Smilow. The wonderful team there rescued me. They helped me understand that you are not the same person you were the day before you got diagnosed. That you have to regroup and move on.”
“Today I feel great. It’s been two years since I was diagnosed and more than a year since I finished my treatments. I have no side effects. I don’t take any medication. I have a new life, with different people. I’ve made new friends. I like my new job with Lawrence + Memorial, making appointments for patients, doing referrals. I’m still friends with the people at my old job. And of course, I have my loving family, a wonderful husband, the love of my life to whom I’ve been married for 23 years, my daughter and my son who are in their early 20s, who are both working and independent, and my three cats.”
“Being away from home and my family for all those months was very traumatic. It was like we weren’t part of the world for a while. We’ve really learned our lesson. We’re closer now. We tell each other more. We experience life by doing simple things. Hiking, going to the beach, taking a walk, traveling. I know that every day is a gift. You have to live now. Not everybody gets to live to be 90.”
“That random trip to the dentist saved my life. It all came on so fast. I would have been sick and figured I had the flu. I never would have thought to go to the doctor with those symptoms. I was so fortunate they put me in that ambulance and sent me to New Haven. I have a deep faith, but I have faith in Smilow too. I’m just so lucky that in this whole world, Smilow is where I ended up. I’m very happy, I now think of life as a great adventure. I am so thankful for my doctors and Smilow.”