Patient Stories

"Cancer has taught me that there are only two important things in life: love from the people around you, and finding beauty in even the smallest things like sunshine, grass, birds and squirrels. It's so important for your soul."

-- Joe Anne Daigre

For Joe Anne Daigre of Friendswood, Texas, losing weight was the first sign that something was wrong. "I was proud of myself, because I thought my diet was working," says Daigre, now 59. "But then I started to have trouble getting up for work or to go jogging." The year was 1988. As her fatigue increased, Joe finally went to the doctor for iron supplements and antibiotics, which he administered, but he also took a blood sample for testing.

She realized the next day that her condition was more serious when she tried to go jogging. "I took about 10 steps and my legs just quit, and I fell to my knees on the jogging trail," she says. "When I went back to my doctor, he asked me if anyone in my family had leukemia, which shocked me!" Joe went to two hematologists; the second one did a bone marrow biopsy that revealed she had chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). When the hematologist called with the diagnosis, Joe was at home alone. "He basically told me that he couldn't treat it, and that I had about three years to live," she says. "I asked him to refer me to M. D. Anderson."

Joe clearly remembers her first appointment with Dr. Charles Koller, who gave her three options. "Number one was do nothing at all, in which case I would survive three years at most; number two was to take drugs like Myleran that would improve my blood count but not alter the progress of the CML; or I could take an experimental drug called interferon, but without any promises," says Joe. "Of course, I chose number three."

For the next 12 years, Joe would give herself a daily injection of interferon, a process she calls managing misery. "The interferon made me ache all over like a bad case of flu, and many times, I barely had the energy to get out of bed and take a bath," she says. "But my choice was either living misery or death, since the interferon was the only thing available at the time to help me." She also found that the drug affected her mentally, making it hard to concentrate or remember how to perform simple tasks. "On many days, I was ready to throw in the towel, and even considered suicide because it was so rough," she says. "That's when M. D. Anderson's support services came to the rescue, to help me deal with the pain and other issues." She was the first woman branch manager for Metropolitan Life Insurance in Houston, but had to give up her career almost immediately. "I kept my business suits for several years because I thought I might get back to work, but I gradually had to let go."

Things began to turn around for Joe in the early 1990's, when she went into remission. "I had a dream in which I saw a bed of beautiful flowers," she says. "A voice said that they won't bloom if you don't plant them. I decided that it was my mission to plant a garden." Despite her continuing exhaustion from the interferon, Joe managed to plant azaleas and flowers around the base of a tree in her yard, and found that the more she worked, the better she felt.

Then came 1998. Joe's mother was diagnosed with bile duct cancer and died in November. Her CML moved into an accelerated phase, and she was headed for a blast crisis, which signals the transformation from chronic to acute leukemia. "It was like my body was grieving for my mother," she says. Joe also had a slipped disc that required surgery, but her body simply wasn't producing enough blood. Soon, she began to lose control of her legs, her bowel and bladder. "Dr. Koller and my other doctors loaded me with platelets so I could undergo surgery," she says. She has recovered completely from that procedure.

In January 2000, Dr. Koller placed Joe in a clinical trial for STI-571(Gleevec), an oral drug that interferes with signal pathways that tell the tumor to grow. "The interferon was no longer working for me," she says. "I had no blood, just blasts, and my bone marrow was practically non-existent." Joe is still on Gleevec, and her last bone marrow scan, in January 2001, showed no signs of CML. "I feel ever so much better now, like a normal person again," she says. "After 12 years of interferon, I don't care if I have to take this drug the rest of my life!" Joe has to take the anti-nausea drug Zofran along with the Glivec so she can keep it down.

"No telling of my miracle would be complete without the blessings of dear friends who encouraged me," says Joe. "There is no way to thank them for their love and commitment. It was not fun and I had no money, yet they believed in me, prayed for me, even if it was for the strength to face death at times, gave me blood and platelets, offered me bone marrow, gave me transportation, food, warm hugs, loving eyes and humor."

"Some of these people have died during these years, but they took with them my love and I still hold theirs in my heart. My 13 years with CML have been an involuntary spiritual journey. Now I know that I know who I am. Only God knows where I will go from here. There will be challenges, pain and heartbreak, most certainly, and good times, but above it all, love never dies. I can rely on that."

Joe has nothing but the highest praise for M. D. Anderson. "Everyone was wonderful, especially Dr. Koller's physician assistant, Pat Ault, who kept me going," she says. "Dr. Alan Valentine in psychiatry and Dr. Arthur Forman in neuro-oncology also helped me through. It looks like they put all the angels on earth in one place--M. D. Anderson."

PS. If you think you are facing this alone, please call me at (281) 482-7621.

                                 Joe Anne with Dr. Koller

                   Joe Anne with Dr. Druker, who discovered Gleevec.