Med School Student Passes Out at the Start of Her Second Year, 7 Weeks Later She's Diagnosed with Leukemia (Exclusive)

Mackenzie Paul, 23, was diagnosed with leukemia just weeks after she fainted at the start of her second year of medical school

Mackenzie Paul stood observing a nurse during a clinical rotation on her first day of her second year of medical school at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine when all of a sudden she started to feel faint.

At the time, the 23-year-old former college athlete at Lake Superior State University didn't think much of it. She tells PEOPLE she sat down on a couch in the patient's room and put her head in between her hands, hoping it would help her feel better. But then she passed out.

"I woke up to five nurses standing around me and it was just weird," Paul says. "I thought I hadn't eaten enough, or drank enough or slept enough 'cause being a medical student, it's hard to take care of yourself. So, I brushed it off."

The following week, Paul was on the same rotation at Spectrum Health Hospitals Butterworth Hospital when she noticed herself feeling dizzy again.

"I was just standing in one spot not moving in a patient's room," she says. "I've seen lots of different procedures. There's a difference between seeing blood and being grossed out by it but it wasn't anything like that."

Paul called her primary care doctor who suggested she get labs and bloodwork done. Seven weeks later on Aug. 17, Paul was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

AML is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow affecting a group of white blood cells known as the myeloid cells, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms may include fever, bone pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, easy bruising and frequent infections.

Related: Mom, 40, Diagnosed with Leukemia After Kids' Pediatrician Encouraged Her to See a Doctor Because She 'Didn't Look Right'

"Other than being more tired I really didn't have any symptoms," she says. "My whole life I've been really healthy. I was a college athlete. But I remember looking at my labs and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is horrible.' "

Paul recalls, "The doctors were pretty amazed that I didn't get sick at all because all my white blood cells were really low," explaining that she "came into the hospital as an outpatient with my diagnosis and most AML patients are admitted after going to the ER because they are so sick."

She adds, "I was really lucky that I listened to my body and got the blood work done and figured it out before it did develop into something much worse."

Since her diagnosis Paul's taken a leave of absence from medical school to focus on her health. She spent five weeks at the hospital after receiving her first round of chemotherapy.

While she has since been released, Paul will continue maintenance chemo until she finds a donor for a bone marrow transplant — something that will hopefully take place within the next few months.

"My entire life, everything's been in my control," Paul says. "This you can't study harder for, to make your labs go up or have the outcome you want. It's very humbling and I just have to have faith. I don't know why this is happening to me, but it'll make me a better person and a better future doctor."

She adds, "I hope people take away that faith, family, and community give us strength when things are out of our control, and that those things have kept me fighting every day."

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Read the original article on People.