My passion is sailing. At the rudder of a Bavaria 46 in the waters of Kornati, Croatia in August 2013.

This article is also available in German.
Dieser Artikel ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

Life is beautiful.

Finally, I find the time to introduce myself properly. My name is Gerd-Thomas Reichert, friends and family just call me Thomas. I have been happily married for 33 years, I have two grown daughters and one grand child (for now).
Occupational I have been active in the IT industry since 1997 (Self-employed).
The enthusiasm for electronics and computers already began in my childhood and throughout my youth.
I love freedom, the ocean, sunny beaches and sail boats, however I do not own my own boat. As a young family we invested our savings in a house and property and settled down. When our children were younger our vacations would always draw us to the south such as Portugal (Algarve), Canary Islands, Greece (Rhodes) etc.
Sun, beaches and the ocean were essential.
Boat tours were just always part of it, we usually partook in normal tourist packages. Yachts we encountered would always awaken that secret desire in me, but I rejected that thought. Unattainable. Your wishes for life are restricted by financial limits and you have to set priorities.
My priorities are definitely the well being of my family, including our common family vacations.

The Shock.

I have cancer. The blood forming stem cells in my bone marrow are infested.
To be precise: On July 29th 2016 I was diagnosed with high risk - MDS RAEB II.
It took me a while to process the news. Horrifying.
First, I had nightmares, then hope and confidence. I started to gather information about the illness and treatment options. 2017 is my big opportunity, the reset button of my life.

At the isolation ward of the hematology/oncology in the Küchwald-Klinikum Chemnitz. I have involuntary lost 20kg in the past few weeks. As you can see.

Starting today, I want to not only write my Recovery Diary, but also tell you a bit more about myself. Most importantly, I want to reassure those who are in a similar situation.
No matter if it is yourself, a member of your family or a friend who is affected, it can hit anyone and unexpectedly in the middle of one’s life.
The illness is called Myelodysplastic Syndrome or MDS and can develop unnoticed over the course of several years. As soon as the symptoms become apparent, the course will be quickened, almost like an exponential function.

Early Indications.

Physically, the illness shows through increasing susceptibility to infections, decreasing strength, increasing need of sleep and finally, distress and heart ache during longer terms of physical activity.
The symptoms gradually developed, so I didn’t notice them for a long time.
When these symptoms were addressed to me and accordingly I noticed them (this began seven or eight years ago), I would typically trace them back to occupational stress, contact with lots of people, insufficient vitamin supply, lack of exercise and being over weight.
Not to mention I was in my forties and not the youngest anymore.

Counter steer in Blind Flight.

I very much disliked going to the doctor. In complete ignorance of the illness I used my way of steering towards the symptoms: I began going to a gym, but didn’t really enjoy it, so I gave it up quickly.
Motivated by going to the gym, I payed more attention to foods that are high in protein, have less carbs and I developed my own diet: a small breakfast, an egg for example, nuts and some fruits throughout the day, in the evening a nice piece of meat or fish to fill me up and for a side dish some veggies and a salad.
That is how I went from 106 kg to 94kg within a few weeks and I kept that weight steady; I got a dog, so I have more reasons to run daily.

My wife and I in Marciana Marina, Elba, Italy.

My wife also intensely looked into healthy nutrition at that time, so our whole way of life has changed in the past years.
I’m assuming that all of this just slowed down the outbreak of the illness by a few years.
However it couldn’t prevent the progression of the illness.

What’s actually happening in my body?

Normally, hemopoietic stem cells divide continuously, so they can specialize.
About half of the daughter cells mature to dividable stem cells, so they are never running out and the remaining ones mature to erythrocytes; those are the red blood cells responsible for transportation of oxygen or they specialize into thrombocytes, the blood plates which are always ready to close up wounds or they mature into leukocytes, the white blood cells and continuously work as part of the body to keep the immune system running.
The important part: all of these cells in your blood (erythrocytes, thrombocytes, leukocytes) only have a restricted life expectancy (a few hours to a few weeks).
They do not reproduce themselves, but are formed by the stem cells in your bone marrow (as described above).

Something is completely running in disarray.

For me it probably started several years ago with one mutant stem cell.
Mutations during cell divisions are not rare. They actually occur several times per day in every human being. When a cell cannot perform its duty due to mutation it either is eliminated by the programmed cell death, a wonderful invention by nature; and/or the cell is eliminated by the immune system. Typically, that works fine. Unfortunately, in my case, it didn’t.
The trigger factor of the mutation of one of my stem cells had several consequences:
On one hand the programmed cell death was abrogated and on the other hand the cell division was slowed down.
In the following years the descendants of that mutant stem cell spread in my bone marrow and pushed back the healthy stem cells. That’s simple math.
As described above, after the stem cells divide they develop into one of the various blood cells. Unfortunately, the continuously increasing descendants of that cell do not mature into functional blood cells, but stay in the bone marrow as a so called immature blast cell. A few immature blast cells are not a problem because they are eliminated by the immune cells.
When the development escalates this is not possible anymore. The disease pattern becomes a manifest and without medical attention it develops into an acute leukemia (AML) und eventually death.

Continued, Part 2: By the Wind - Celebrate a birthday in the hospital