This is my friend Ashley. I'm sure you've heard me talk about her. I have copied
a article about her from the Peoria Journal Star.
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Survivor is 'a walking
miracle'

Morton woman, 25, keeps beating the odds in her 3-year fight with leukemia

June 23, 2004
By HYACYNTH FILIPPI
of the Journal Star

MORTON - Ashley Meyer's doctors joke that she has nine lives.

"They say they just don't know how many of them I've used up," said
25-year-old Meyer, laughing on the phone from M.D. Anderson Medical Center in Houston during her daily blood transfusion.

Meyer has beat the odds more times than her doctors or family can count during her three-year battle with acute mylogenous leukemia. And Saturday, she is going to take the first step in returning to a normal life, as she plans to come home to Morton for the first time in seven months.

It's people like Meyer whom Friday's Relay for Life benefits. It gives them hope.

It's been a rocky road to healing since she was diagnosed with AML in November of 2001, said her sister, 29-year-old Cortney Vlahos.

"At first, doctors kept telling her it was the flu," she said.

After two weeks of not feeling well, Meyer went to the emergency room. While she was there, she hyperventilated, prompting doctors to do blood work. And then the news no one expected came - she had leukemia.

After two months at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, where she received two rounds of chemotherapy, she went into remission. Then Meyer had the option of either a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. She chose the latter.

"We knew we could always do the bone marrow transplant because I was the perfect match," Vlahos said.

After the stem cell transplant, Meyer's white blood cell counts never recovered. In August 2002, she relapsed. "Then they told us our only hope was a bone marrow transplant," Vlahos said.

Within one day, Ashley Meyer and her parents, Jacqueline and Douglas

Meyer, flew to M.D. Anderson Medical Center in Houston for chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. In October, her sister followed.

"I'd do anything for her,"Vlahos said. "You feel so helpless when someone's sick that you love, and it was something I could actually do for her."

And it worked. Meyer went into remission for the second time and returned home.

"2003 was the best year for us," Vlahos said. "She was recovering, she was barrel racing. She got her hair back."

Meyer even returned to work part time at Caterpillar Inc.

While she wishes the story ended there, Vlahos said the worst was still to come.

On Nov. 11, 2003, exactly two years from the date she was first diagnosed, Meyer and her parents traveled to Texas for routine blood work and found the cancer was back. About a week later, doctors said she'd need another bone marrow transplant. They gave her an initial round of chemo, which sent her into remission,
Vlahos said. And as if things couldn't be any worse, Meyer got a fungal infection in her lungs, which quickly spread to her brain.

"If you think cancer's horrible … ," Vlahos trailed off. "I've never seen anything like that in my life."

Meyer's health continued in a downward spiral, as she suffered three mini strokes and one major stroke. The fungal infection left her with blurred vision, but it did not alter her attitude.

"When she lost her eyesight she just said, 'Oh well, at least I'm still here.' … She is just never down. She never complains, " Vlahos said. While the doctors wonder how Meyer pulled through, Vlahos said she has a pretty good guess.

"I honestly think it was her attitude and God," she said. "Everyday I pray that the blood work comes back clear. All I can say is she's a walking miracle."

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Support Ashley.... she's a fighter!