Call me Mary. Call me Mary not only because Ishmael has already been taken, but also because it s my name. The tremendous, overpowering and life-threatening badass beast in my life was blood cancer. Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) related Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) to be exact. The fire in my belly was sheer determination, an unwavering will to survive and a little Italian stubbornness thrown in for good measure. This is my Moby Dick story. This is what happened to me once I reached the shore and realized that I still had a jagged mountain to scale. This is my perception of what has happened in my life because of leukemia and ultimately the need for a bone marrow transplant.