Kit Stevic

So, this is the back story to how I got to today. Around the second week of April, I began to feel very tired even just getting out of bed and getting through the day. I, of course, contributed it to burnout because we were in the midst of a global pandemic. I was embarrassed to feel that way because my kids are (relatively) self sufficient teenagers and my husband and I can work from home. I saw our fortune that neither of us is essential enough to have be out in public and we just had to hunker down in the house. I saw all of the tremendous work many of my colleagues were doing in quick response to the COVID changes that took place on our campus. So, I just said “suck it up, buttercup” and added some more caffeine. 

But, it just continued to get worse. The weekend of May 2-3, I went for a slow bike ride while my daughter ran and was wiped out. So I made a tele-health appointment with my provider and had bloodwork drawn that Tuesday. She called me that night to say that I was pancytopenic, meaning all of my blood cells were either low or critically low. Unfortunately, I’d gone to sleep before I got her message, but in the morning, my husband took me to the ED and I was admitted for the first time.

In the next two weeks I was released home twice and admitted back in the hospital within a day or two. I was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma called Lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma.I have had at least 8 blood transfusions in less than two weeks to keep me alive and maybe more in my future until chemotherapy starts to work. It's going to be a long journey and thank you all for being with me on this journey...

Kit