21-Year-Old Athlete Thought Her Symptoms Were A Complication From Wisdom Tooth Removal. It Turned Out To Be Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Doctors then performed a bone marrow biopsy, which revealed she had AML, the most common form of acute leukemia in adults.

Schara told Northwestern Medicine, recalling the shock of her diagnosis, “I’ve been a relatively healthy person my whole life. I never had any problems until I had my wisdom teeth removed.”

Understanding Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Dr. Gail Roboz, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, previously told SurvivorNet that AML symptoms include shortness of breath, decreased exercise tolerance, unexplained bruising, or infections. In some cases, patients may have no symptoms of AML at all, and therefore are diagnosed unexpectedly during a routine health evaluation.

“Often patients have no idea leukemia is even anywhere on the radar,” Dr. Roboz explained.

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Dr. Roboz explained that AML symptoms can stem from bone marrow problems affecting blood cell production, with diagnosis typically involving blood tests followed by a bone marrow biopsy after abnormal results are found.

Just one day after receiving her diagnosis, Schara began treatment at the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. She underwent a continuous 24-hour chemotherapy infusion and spent the following month at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

After completing chemotherapy, Schara moved forward with a stem cell transplant, with one of her younger sister’s, Elle, identified as a perfect match.

“Hearing that my sister was a perfect 12 out of 12 match, I was in shock. I didn’t think my sisters would be a match, let alone a perfect match,” Schara said.

Schara, whose doctor praised her as “strong both mentally and physically, ultimately received a successful stem cell transplant with healthy donor cells from her sister on July 29, 2025.

She underwent fertility preservation prior to the stem cell transplant.

Now, one year later, she’s in remission and has been back playing volleyball at college since January 2026. She’s set to graduate in December.

“This semester had challenging moments, but watching the progress over the past few months makes it all worth it. I have grown so much mentally and physically, and I’m lucky to have my teammates right beside me,” Schara said.

On November 6, 2025, Schara took to Instagram to commemorate “100 days post transplant!”

“Alongside a carousel of photos from her cancer journey, Schara wrote, “I’m so excited to be at this point and so proud of everything I’ve accomplished. Over the past couple of months, I’ve endured things that no one should have to deal with, let alone a 21-year-old.

“Through all the chemo, hospitalizations, procedures, side effects, and so much more, I’m happy to say that I came away from all of it optimistic for my future. It’d be a lie to say I was always positive in my situation, but I never lost hope. I officially reached a remission at the end of May but there was still a ways to go with treatment.”

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Schara concluded, “I had my stem cell transplant on July 29th with my sister Elle being my donor. That experience, like most in the hospital, was tough. I was fortunately able to leave the hospital on August 17th, and I have been home ever since. I now go to the hospital once a week to have a checkup with my stem-cell doctor and occasionally I’ll see my oncologist.

“I’m a long way from living life “normal” again but you gotta start somewhere. Every day I’m one step closer to living the way I want to live. Thank you all for your support.”

We’re delighted to report that Schara has since gotten back to “living.”

She captioned an Instagram post, shared in July 2026, “First rebirthday. Grateful to be living life again.”

In the photo Schara shared, she smiles while holding a cake that reads, “1st Rebirthday,” marking the milestone, while looking radiant with her short hair.

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Understanding Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia, also known as AML, is a cancer that affects bone marrow the spongy tissue inside of your bones. It is a rare cancer overall, but it is the most common type of leukemia in adults. Children rarely get AML.

“To understand acute myeloid leukemia, you have to understand how the bone marrow works,” Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, former director of the Leukemia Program at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center and current chief of the Division of Hematology at University of Miami Health System, previously told SurvivorNet.

“The bone marrow is the factory that makes all of the cells that wind up in our blood stream.”

What is Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)?

This so-called factory makes red blood cells that bring oxygen to our tissues, white blood cells that make up the immune system, as well as platelets, which help stop bleeding, Dr. Sekeres explained.

All of these cells perform essential functions in the body, and a spike or decline in any of them can lead to some serious health issues.

“When a person has cancer of the bone marrow, such as acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes, that factory gets broken. These are cancers,” he said. “Cancers grow, and they grow in an uncontrollable way.”

Dr. Sekeres pointed out that the way blood cancer grows is different from the way other, solid-tumor cancers grow. With breast cancer, for example, someone may develop a lump or a tumor that grows overtime. With AML, as cancer grows in a confined space (the bone marrow), the normal cells in this space that would be making the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, begin dying off. This leads to the bone marrow being filled with cancer cells.

How to Recognize Symptoms of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Treating Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Acute myeloid leukemia is a fast-growing blood cancer that begins in the bone marrow, the factory that makes white and red blood cells and platelets. Within the bone marrow are stem cells that eventually develop into white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs), and platelets, which help blood clot.

Stem cells can copy themselves to make progenitor cells or precursor cells.  Myeloid progenitor cells turn into red blood cells, granulocytes (a type of white blood cell), and platelets. AML affects the myeloid progenitor cells during a stage of development when they are called myeloblasts.

With AML, myeloblasts fail to turn into fully developed blood cells, leaving them to build up in the bone marrow and blood.

AML is diagnosed by extracting samples of liquid bone marrow and a chip of bone from the back of the hip. The samples are then tested to determine if blood cells in the bone marrow are abnormal.

WATCH: An AML Diagnosis What are the Next Steps?

Dr. Gail Roboz, an AML expert and medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, explained to SurvivorNet in an earlier interview, “The majority of patients have this sporadically out of the clear blue sky.”

Symptoms for acute myeloid leukemia can include:

• Flu-like symptoms
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Loss of appetite

AML causes certain symptoms, but having these symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean you have AML. Your doctor will do diagnostic tests to confirm whether or not you have AML before recommending a treatment.

Your doctor will then perform tests to diagnose you, and those tests include:

• Blood tests. In people with AML, white blood cell counts may be high, and red blood cell and platelet counts may be low. These tests can also show immature cells in the blood that should only be found in the bone marrow.
• Bone marrow biopsy. Removing and testing a bone marrow sample helps confirm AML after an abnormal blood test result.
• Lumbar puncture. This test uses a sample of spinal fluid to diagnose AML.
• Molecular and genetic testing. Your doctor can do tests to determine whether you have certain genes related to AML and if your cancer might respond to specialized treatments.

WATCH: Treatment decisions for AML

For people deemed healthy enough, induction therapy is the standard treatment for AML. The process involves a seven-day chemotherapy regimen, followed by several weeks of recovery. The goal of this high dose of chemo is to induce remission.

A stem cell transplant is another option for treating AML. After a high dose of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant gives the patient healthy cells to replace the ones that chemotherapy may have killed.

After chemo and a transplant, the recovery process can be difficult because the immune system will be compromised. Finding a genetic match in a donor may also be difficult.

Why a Stem-Cell Transplant?

A stem-cell transplant doesn’t directly fight cancer cells, rather it helps your body create healthy cells after chemotherapy and other treatments have destroyed them.

The first course of treatment for AML patients is generally a combination of two chemotherapy drugs, known as “induction chemotherapy.” Its goal is to kill cancer cells, but along with killing cancer cells, chemotherapy also kills the body’s healthy cells and platelets. A stem-cell transplant is designed to help rebuild those blood cells and platelets and restore the immune system. The healthy new cells may also help prohibit recurrence of the disease.

“We don’t believe that chemotherapy, for the majority of leukemias, is sufficient in order to cure patients of their disease, forever,” Dr. Caitlin Costello, hematologist-oncologist at UC San Diego Health, told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.

“And so a transplant is an opportunity to do that cure patients with leukemia.”

Dr. Caitlin Costello breaks down the basics about stem-cell transplants for SurvivorNet

Which AML Patients are Candidates for Stem-Cell Transplants?

Not all AML patients are candidates for a stem-cell transplant. Some need only chemotherapy, and some high-risk patients may not be able to tolerate a transplant. It all comes down to your medical team determining your risk group.

Dr. Raoul Tibes, director of the Clinical Leukemia Program at NYU Langone Health,  told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview that AMLs are grouped according to what are called cytogenetics (loss or changes to the structure of chromosomes) and other molecular markers. Doctors also look for genetic mutations on top of chromosomes, which could be indicators of risk.

Dr. Raoul Tibes discusses how an individual’s AML risk group is determined with SurvivorNet

“Based on all that information, we can group leukemias into the chromosome status, as well as mutations and genes. We take them together and then we have three or four different risk stratification groups,” he says. “That helps us decide which therapy we use.”

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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