Meet Amari: Nursing Student Turns Cancer into a Calling

Dillard University nursing student, Amari Felder, was always an early riser – happy to get up for her 8 a.m. classes. However, one day in March of 2022 she heard her alarm go off, and she reset it to wake up an hour later for her next class. Amari remembered she couldn’t get herself out of bed and the feeling of fatigue was like a blanket weighing her down.

Her friends, knowing Amari was not one to miss class, dragged her out of bed, determined to make sure she got to her 10 a.m. class on time. As she got in the shower to get ready for class, she remembered feeling lightheaded and then felt her friends picking her up from where she collapsed on the shower floor.

“I really didn’t feel well, and I called my mom to come get me. I couldn’t even drive myself home,” Amari said. “We went to the local hospital in Hammond, and they ran tests. They couldn’t come up with a specific diagnosis, but I heard them whispering about a ‘blood disorder.’ Then, I heard it. Someone said ‘cancer.’” Only a few days after her fall in the bathroom, Amari was diagnosed her with pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Amari’s cancer is the most common type of ALL – a fast-growing type of blood cancer characterized by too many B-cell lymphoblasts (white blood that are immature) in a patient’s bone marrow and blood.

April is National Minority Cancer Awareness Month, and Children’s Hospital New Orleans (CHNOLA) understands the disproportionate burden minorities face when it comes to cancer and the team is passionate about diagnostics and early treatment. Amari felt blessed to meet and be treated by Zachary LeBlanc, MD, pediatric oncologist. She spent a month inpatient at CHNOLA, undergoing intensive chemotherapy. “Dr. LeBlanc is great. He has been very helpful and makes sure I understand everything,” she said, adding all the nurses have been so helpful during her entire ordeal.

She mentioned two specifically. “Bailey and Samantha are just amazing. When I first got admitted, Sam was a nurse tech and then she became my nurse. I watched her pick up skills and knew she was studying for the NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination). She was there for me, and I was there for her. We bonded over being in nursing school. I watched her shadow the nurses and I was able to celebrate with her passing the nursing exam,” Amari said. “And Bailey kept me laughing and that was really important. They helped to make a bad experience more tolerable.”

She was discharged from Children’s Hospital with a port and continued the infusions until November 2023 when she went officially on maintenance. She will take oral chemotherapy medication until July 6, 2024 and looks forward to the day she will be cancer free. “Now I go to the hospital once every three months for a lumbar puncture and I get labs done in between. I can’t wait until early fall when my port will be removed, and I’ll be able to ring the bell,” said Amari.

Leukemia only set Amari back a year in terms of education. She expects to have two senior years, starting the first in September 2024. She has her sights set on graduating in the spring of 2026 with her BSN and RN. She finished her freshman and sophomore years online. Finally, in the summer of 2023, Amari was accepted into the school’s nursing program and, after receiving her white coat in August 2023, she started classes back in person.

“Dr. LeBlanc is aware that I’m a nursing student so he tries to explain the reasoning for everything and gives me tips for how I can remember the names of the medications,” Amari said, “My experience at Children’s has made me want to become an oncology nurse for sure,” she continued. “I know I’ll bring something special to my work because I have been on the other side. I know how the meds make you feel. I have had the experience myself. I know the symptoms. I will be able to make my patients feel more comfortable with their situation. In a way, having gone through it will help others. I definitely believe that.”

In her “spare time,” (there’s not much of it), she calls herself a “treat maker” and loves to make chocolate covered strawberries, pretzels and krispie treats. “Cheesecake-stuffed strawberries are my signature treat. You can look me up on Instagram: @charmeddtreats. Two ‘d’s’.”

Amari is also proud to be a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, “the first black female sorority,” she said. For now, she is focused on finally being able to travel – something she couldn’t wait to do during her treatments. In the past few months, Amari has been to Disney World in Florida and to the Dominican Republic.

Looking back at her experience, she is so grateful to Children’s for their wonderful care and personal support. If nothing else, she admits, she has learned a very important thing – and it has nothing to do with school.

“I’m stronger than I ever thought I was. I learned a person never knows what they are capable of until they have no choice but to go through it,” Amari said. “Right when my life was beginning, I was stopped in my tracks. Everyone else was growing and moving on. But my life was on hold because of cancer. I’ll tell you this. Fighting cancer is not for the weak. This disease really teaches you how strong you are.”

To learn more about Children’s Hospital New Orleans is committed to diagnosing and treatment childhood cancers, please read: https://www.chnola.org/services/hematology-oncology/oncology-services/