Cancer and Clinical Services Patient Stories

Married for two years and seven months pregnant with her first child, Summer Drake started noticing changes in her stamina. Increasingly tired, she chalked it up to pregnancy, house hunting and the busyness of her life.

Then came a routine blood draw. Her platelet count was extremely low, and her doctor recommended seeing an oncologist in her hometown.

After a lack of solid answers over a span of several months, however, Summer grew frustrated. Then, her minister recommended that she see an expert at The James. They were also concerned with her low platelet count, and after diagnosing her with aplastic anemia, she was immediately admitted.

Nationally recognized hematology expert and James Outpatient Clinic director Sam Penza, MD, and his dedicated hematologic oncology team walked her through what exactly was happening to her body and explained that a treatment plan needed to be determined right way. “They told me we had two weeks to figure something out before things got really bad,” Summer said. “We had to figure it out fast.”

The solution? She would undergo a bone marrow transplant. Her brother Nathaniel, who was with her at the hospital, was tested to determine if he could be a potential donor. Two days later, the results came back: Nathaniel was a match.

To prepare for the transplant, Summer began chemotherapy and radiation. After those treatments, she underwent the bone marrow transplant and remained in the hospital for several weeks so that James specialists could check her numbers daily and ensure that she was on track for recovery. While there, her husband stayed with her constantly, and her mother stayed at their new house with their now six-week-old daughter. 

“Then on day 15,” Summer shared, “my numbers started to go up.”

“Everyone (at The James) was super personable,” Summer said. “They were there to help and to communicate what was happening. This was the best place I could have been.”

Now celebrating her sixth year of remission, Summer is in her fifth year of teaching kindergarten and is the proud mother of two beautiful and healthy children, Reagan and Henson.