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Angela Moore is a very thankful woman.

Moore was recently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, yet she can look back over the ordeal of the past month and see how the timing worked out to her best advantage.

Moore, who now lives in Alma, Neb., with her husband Shaun and their three children, Caden, 7, Kaylee, 4, and Colten, 17 months, returned to Maryville to visit her family and leave the children with her mother, Anna Ledbetter, while she and Shaun enjoyed a cruise. When they returned, however, Moore wasn't feeling well.

"I wasn't feeling good, but I wasn't feeling really bad," Moore said via telephone from her room at Blount Memorial Hospital. "Before the cruise, I had been getting bruises for no reason, then my gums started bleeding and I was out of breath."

Convinced by her mother to see Dr. Lee Ann Fairall, a physician's assistant with East Tennessee Medical Group, Moore drove herself to the office on June 19. Blood work showed her white blood count at 100,000, where a normal reading would be 10,000, Moore said. "(Fairall) came in and said, 'It's not good.'"

Dr. Matthew McCarty, of Thompson Oncology Group, Thompson Cancer Survival Center, immediately admitted Moore to Blount Memorial Hospital. She was severely anemic and required blood transfusions. Moore underwent surgery to insert a catheter in her chest to administer her medications, but that night, she was unable to breathe and went into a coma. She woke up four days later, after already having had three days of chemotherapy.

God's plan

Moore said the comment has been made several times that it must be very awkward for her to be in the hospital here instead of in Nebraska. That's not really the case, she said.

"My mom is here, my two sisters, friends," she said. "If I had been in Nebraska, I would have been in a hospital in Omaha, four hours away. The timing was crazy, but it was for the best. God planned it this way for a reason. Here, I can see my kids every day." Since the children had already spent time with their grandmother during the cruise, they are comfortable with her at her home, making the time less traumatic for them. They have also had more time to get to know their extended family.

"The kids are having a great time," Moore said. "They're doing fine."

Moore had originally planned to visit her doctor after she returned to Nebraska. Thanks to the insistence of her mother, however, she received the treatment she needed at just the right time.

"AML comes on very fast, it's a very rapid thing," Moore explained. She was told if she had waited to seek medical attention, she would not have survived the trip home.

Moore, described by her mother, Anna Ledbetter, as being very strong in her Christian faith, said she spends a lot of time praying with her husband. "It has brought us closer together as a couple and closer to God. I know He won't give me something I can't handle, and He will take care of me."

Overwhelming response

Moore and her family have been overwhelmed with the response from the Blount community in helping them cope during this stressful time. She attended Heritage High School, worked for a time at Maryville Middle School and a local bank, and has numerous friends here. Ledbetter said, "Oak View Baptist Church has had such a wonderful outpouring." In particular, the blood donations in Moore's name have helped offset that cost.

"We just want to give a huge 'thank you' to everyone for their support, prayers, monetary donations, food donations," Moore said. "It has made a huge impact."

Moore celebrated her 28th birthday July 9 in her hospital room. Some of the nurses brought her a cake and a quilt from Tuesday's Child Quilters and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. A family celebration was held that evening.

On July 16, Moore said she was still very tired but is able to get up more and more. She is hoping to be released from the hospital shortly. She will travel to Nebraska after her release and stay in the Omaha hospital for about a week, will go home for a couple of weeks, then return to the hospital every two weeks for several months depending on her progress.

Moore is looking forward to spending time with her husband and kids.

"That will be one of my focuses in life," she said.