On February 2nd, 2010, only 8 months after the birth of her daughter, April was diagnosed with Acute Mylogeneous Leukemia (AML). She received treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN beginning that February until the disease was declared to be in remission in September of 2010. She received a total of 6 chemotherapy treatments and was rarely able to go back home to be with her daughter. While
receiving her treatments in Rochester, she stayed at the Sandra J. Schulze American Cancer Society Hope Lodge for a total of about 6 months. The Hope Lodge was instrumental in helping her through her treatment by allowing her to live in a "home like" atmosphere while meeting many new friends that were going through similar types of treatment and most importantly, allow her daughter Isabelle to visit frequently. Because of her love of watching her husband play softball, in June of 2010, a group of close family friends put together a softball tournament as a benefit for the family of April. In 2011, April wanted to keep the tournament going as a fundraiser for the Hope Lodge where she had stayed for so long. On August 12th, 2011, April received devastating news that her Leukemia had returned. She started chemotherapy immediately and a consultation to receive a bone marrow transplant. In early November, she developed a fungal infection in her sinus' that nearly took her life. She battled through that and on Thanksgiving day, received her bone marrow transplant. On December 4th, 2011, she was admitted into the ICU at Methodist Hospital in Rochester with very low blood pressure and an infection. Then, a few days before Christmas, she started going down hill fast and almost lost her battle on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day, we received a miracle in that she started turning around and was getting better. We were also receiving good news that her transplant had taken and that she was starting to produce her own white blood cells again. About a week after New Years, April started going down hill again. After lengthy discussions with her doctors and the realization that she was not going to be able to recover, April passed peacefully on January 15th, 2012.
