Doorhy is battling back from Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) – a slowly progressing cancer that makes the body produce too many cancerous myeloid white blood cells – and a subsequent bone marrow transplant that helped save her life. For Doorhy, the days of exams and labs at the university will be a cakewalk compared to the exams and labs she’s endured the past 19 months.

Doorhy enrolled at NC State in August 2001. She began her college career as an animal science major, with the aim of preparing herself for graduate studies in veterinary medicine.

But in early 2002, Doorhy’s painful knees resulted in a trip to the doctor that indicated the presence of a blood disease. That diagnosis was confirmed as CML in tests at Duke University Medical Center in late January.

Remarkably, Doorhy finished out the spring semester – carefully avoiding people with colds or other illnesses – while undergoing chemotherapy and taking a new drug called Gleevec, which has had success in treating the disease. But she also dealt with some severe side effects as a result of her treatment regimen.

Doorhy finished her freshman year with a 4.0 grade-point average, despite the physical hardships. Besides the regimen of drugs, she also underwent numerous invasive procedures, such as the removal of her enlarged spleen and multiple spinal taps, to keep the disease in check.
Doctors decided that a bone marrow transplant would be the best solution to fight Doorhy’s CML. Family members were tested but none matched. The National Bone Marrow Donor Program placed Doorhy on a search list, and a donor was found in June.

Doorhy underwent a successful bone marrow transplant on July 30, 2002, two weeks after undergoing extensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments that essentially killed her existing marrow. While she recovered from the transplant, Doorhy signed up to take a full load of courses through NC State’s distance education program, which provided her the opportunity to take Internet and video courses.

Unfortunately, she suffered severe complications in September, and was forced to withdraw from her classes. Doorhy left the transplant unit later that month, but had to stay in an apartment near the hospital as she was required to go to the hospital every day for checkups and medication.

In November, Doorhy was cleared to return to her home in Sanford, although her suppressed immune system was not yet ready for campus life. She completed a full load of classes via distance education in the spring semester, garnering two A+ grades and an A.

“Classes were a great distraction,” Doorhy says. “Keeping busy helped a lot with the pain and nausea, but it was frustrating not being able to do things with the same effectiveness as I used to.”

Now, a little more than a year after the bone marrow transplant, Doorhy is ready to return to campus life. She is still taking a large number of medications to offset the side effects of the transplant itself – Doorhy still experiences some pain, nausea, muscle spasms, stomach problems and sleeplessness – but has completed the drug regimen of immunosuppressants. Those drugs produced their own side effects, including memory loss.

Passing the first anniversary of her transplant also allowed Doorhy to contact her bone marrow donor. Doorhy talks to the Florida resident often, in fact.

“He is very happy to have made such a difference in my recovery,” Doorhy says. “We hope to have him come up to North Carolina for a visit in the near future.”

Now Doorhy lives in an off-campus apartment with her service Great Dane, Shadrach. She has a good friend living right next door. She’s classified as a second-semester sophomore, just as focused on continuing her career path as a caregiver to animals.
And those labs and tests she’ll take at NC State? Piece of cake.

Please note that registration opens for spring semester NC State Distance Education courses on November 21st. Program information is available at www.distance.ncsu.edu