My name is Julie Anna Congdon and I was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) in late November of 2004. In retrospect I was probably having some mild symptoms for many months prior to my first doctors visit (low grade fevers, bloating, fatigue), but it wasn't until after the two major hurricanes we had here in Florida and my trip to Italy that I realized something was really wrong. I had fevers for two weeks when I got back from Italy, but at first I figured it was just the flu. Finally I went to see a family practice physician thinking I had a kidney infection because of severe back pain and the fevers. We did some blood tests, started me on some antibiotics and I was to come back the next day for the results. That night I went home and was baffled by the bloated feeling that wouldn't go away. I laid down on my back and palpated my abdomen and to my surprise there was a large mass that had taken over the left side of my abdomen. I knew this was bad (I remembered from midwifery school). When I returned for my test results the next day I told the doc that I thought we missed something the day before- like my giant spleen!!!! She shared my blood test results with me (my white blood cells- 56,000, normal is 4,000-11,000) and told me I needed to go to the hospital right away. I cried to Noel, left the office and called my Dad in Connecticut in absolute panic. That was at 2:30 in the afternoon, and all I had to say was, "Daddy I need you" and he was there by 10:30 that night, eight hours later. He came straight to the hospital and curled up in bed with me where we slept until morning. I received excellent care from everyone I encountered at Martin Memorial, North! After a bone marrow biopsy, blood cultures, tests for strange tropical viruses (we wished for malaria) and a slew of other stuff over a week, we ended up at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for an expert opinion. They did a million more tests and another week later we received the diagnosis of CML.