Kathy, I will add your Tommy to our prayer list. He has shown tremendous
courage and we very much hope he will come through this procedure with a
complete cure. God bless, Jeanne
"Argila, June" wrote:
>
> Kathy Q. I will pray for Tommy. Love from your friend June A.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Qksk@AOL.COM [mailto:Qksk@AOL.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 11:43 PM
> To: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com
> Subject: [MOL] An update on Tommy...
>
> Hello fellow Molers,
>
> Get comfortable... this is a long one...
>
> I've waited a while to post on what was happening with Tommy. For those
> of
> you who have joined the forum since I last posted... Welcome! I will
> give
> you a (very) brief summary of what's happened so far.
>
> My nephew Tommy was diagnosed Sept. 27, 1999 with Acute Myeloid Leukemia
>
> (AML). It was centered in his nervous system and brain and the
> prognosis was
> very scary. He went through 21 days of intensive chemo... and spent the
>
> better part of the next 6 weeks trying to recover from that. He had
> numerous
> infections and at the end of the first round of treatment, the tests
> showed
> he was not in remission. We were even more frightened. At that time
> they
> also spelled out that they thought he might have a second condition...
> myelodysplasia. This looked to be a really serious double whammy.
> Well...
> he went home to his wife and twin boys (he's 24, she's 23 and the twins
> at
> the time were about 18 months old) and began to heal.
>
> My nephew has an incredible attitude. He and his wife have a very
> strong
> religious belief and belong to a wonderfully supportive church. When
> everyone kept throwing survival percentages at him he had a simple
> response.
> He said "It seems to me in God's eyes you are either 100% alive or 100%
> not.
> I am 100% alive and feel as though God still has much for me to do. So
> I
> will fight this thing, with his help, and eventually beat it so I can
> finish
> the work he put me here to do." Wow. It still chokes me up to think
> about
> his conviction and courage.
>
> Within a few weeks he went back to the hospital for another bone marrow
> biopsy. Much to everyone's surprise, the test results not only showed
> he'd
> gone into remission, but that they had misdiagnosed the myelodysplasia
> rx.
> He was now clearly only dealing with just the one diagnosis. This was
> no
> small thing, but certainly better than having both conditions to contend
>
> with. Shortly after that, we were notified with the promising news that
> a
> bone marrow transplant donor had been located.
>
> He went through a round of consolidation chemo in January and after
> fighting
> off more infections again gained back his strength. He has maintained
> his
> positive attitude, regardless of the ups and downs of the roller coaster
> he's
> been on. Don't get me wrong. He's been scared, depressed, worried and
> upset
> about all the people he thinks he's letting down while he's been
> struggling
> with the effects of this disease. And he was having to deal with the
> reality
> of feeling so sick for so long. Tommy, prior to this illness was a very
>
> healthy, strong young man. But he has maintained a core of strength,
> which
> is based in his faith, that has sustained not only him, but all of us
> around
> him. He just doesn't realize it. All he's been doing from his point of
> view
> is coping with whatever keeps coming up.
>
> So now to the latest! We found out late last week that they have
> verified
> the donor is 100% match and they have scheduled the bone marrow
> transplant
> for March 9. Now the going will really get tough. They will bring him
> to
> the brink of death with the full body radiation and the chemo, in order
> to
> kill all of his current bone marrow to make way for the donor's clean
> bone
> marrow. There were some questions as to whether or not his heart had
> been
> too damaged by the treatment so far to accept the full-blown treatment,
> but
> we got word today that they believe he can take the complete course of
> treatment. Anything less would have put him at greater risk for
> rejection.
>
> As Lillian knows... :-)) I am not a particularly religious person. I
> don't
> attend a church or anything like that. But I do have a sense that there
> is a
> balance to life and have a faith of sorts that understands and
> empathizes
> with a lot of the folks on this forum who are lucky enough to be able to
> make
> the leap of faith that I have not been able to make. Thanks to many of
> you I
> have begun to pray (in my own way) and as I've read about what is
> happening
> with my fellow Molers, have included you in my thoughts and prayers.
>
> So now, Tommy is entering an intensive phase of treatment. From March
> 5-30,
> he will be pretty much in isolation because of how severely his immune
> system
> will be compromised due the transplant. After that we will have 2-4
> months
> of follow-up treatment where he will have to live near the hospital
> (Stanford). This is all filled with much risk. But so many of you have
>
> faced this same risk and have shared your story and inspired others to
> find
> the strength to hang in there and keep hanging on until you've conquered
> the
> demon. ... Or at least this round with the demon.
>
> I guess the reason I'm writing this is to thank you all for sharing your
>
> lives with me (and my nephew and his family) and to let you all know
> what a
> strong bond and responsibility I feel towards helping others who will
> also
> ride this roller coaster.
>
> Thank you from the bottom of my heart, my friends.
>
> Warmly, Kathy Q ( from CA)
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