My name is Leslie Hamm. I'm 51 years old. I have had 23 surgeries since 2006. Found out in March of this year that I have Metaplastic Carcinoma Spindle Cell Stage B2 Triple Negative Breast Cancer. So, I started taking chemo. My doctor told me there's a 1% chance that the chemo would attack the immune system. Well, I just had to be that 1%, and since I don't have a spleen, it really hit me hard. I took 13 rounds and still had 12 more rounds to go.

Three weeks ago, I ended up in the hospital for a week. The chemo bottomed out my blood counts, iron, and potassium. I was passing blood and lost a liter in a month. I was also always out of breath. Come to find out, it caused a blood clot in my lungs. So now, back home, my doctor refuses to give me chemo. After meeting with three doctors this week, they decided the only way is to just go in and remove it. But they won't know if they got it all until after the surgery and run tests. The rare type of cancer I have runs in my bloodstream and can cause cancer anywhere.

My poor husband was so depressed when I was in the hospital because he didn't think I was going to make it. I have a lot of health problems and take 52 pills a day. I had surgery in 2006 and thought I went in because of a stomach virus. The surgeon who did the emergency surgery (didn't have his license) found out I had gallstones so bad that it was poisoning me. I woke up on the operating table and started hollering because I couldn't breathe; my stomach was literally getting bigger. Come to find out, he cut my artery, and I lost all my blood. I died on the table, and after 30 minutes, they shocked me back to life. He took out my spleen, gallbladder, and half of both intestines. He literally cut me top to bottom and side to side, cutting all the muscles in my stomach. He damaged my liver, so now I have cirrhosis of the liver. I stayed in the hospital for 4½ months. I believe everyone makes mistakes and should be forgiven.

After that, I have had six hernia surgeries. My body has been through it, but I am trying to stay positive. It's hard, mainly seeing the hurt in my family's eyes. My husband and I were married when we were 16, then divorced. But 33 years later, we remarried, and I told him all my health problems before we got married. Then, two years later, now this is going on. I honestly feel so bad because he's going through all this. Then to see him break down, it almost made me feel like giving up and moving on because I'm putting him, my boys, my sisters, my in-laws, and especially my beautiful grandbabies through all this. If you can please help.