My Story

I was diagnosed on October 6, 2015 with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I was admitted immediately to the hospital to start a chemotherapy regimen. Like most things in my life, I thought “I got this," but little did I know -- I didn't "have it" at all. Five days into the regimen, things took a turn for the worse. My wife, Wanda, came to visit after work and realized something was going terribly wrong. After some investigation, she discovered I would be alert for five or 10 minutes, then sleep for four or five hours. Concerned, she had me evaluated. A pulmonologist discovered that I was having an allergic reaction to a drug in the regimen that was causing bleeding into my lungs. I was immediately moved to MICU. As the rapid response team was gathering to further evaluate me and prepare to treat the bleeding, I went into respiratory failure, then cardiac failure. Since the team was already gathered in the room, they were able to resuscitate me and stop the bleeding in my lungs quickly. I was then placed into a medically-induced coma to heal. Grimly, the doctor gave me a 2% chance of survival over the next 48 hours.  

During the time I was in a coma, Wanda had to make some tough decisions, one of which was to have a tracheostomy placed into my airway. After three weeks, the doctors declared me in remission, and were ready to start letting me out of the coma. As I was coming out of the coma and becoming alert, I could not communicate due to the tracheostomy. I was also so weak I could not write, and it took what seemed like Herculean strength to just to press a letter on the iPad. At that time, Wanda and I devised a set of signals to communicate to each other. About that time, I realized something went terribly wrong and I was in for a fight, but first I had to preserve what I had and start rebuilding.  

After three more weeks of recovery in MICU, I was transported by ambulance to an inpatient rehabilitation center to work on my strength, independence, and re-learning how to walk. We were told to expect our stay in rehab to be a few months. After 2 weeks, I was walking with assistive devices, discharged way ahead of expectations, and finally returned home!

My next visit with my oncologist was a tough one. We discussed that I needed a stem cell bone marrow transplant to survive, but, in my current condition, he nor any other oncologist would not perform the transplant. We devised a plan that I had to lose weight, and become physically stronger before I would be cleared for transplant.   

During the next few months, I was administered chemotherapy regimens. Plus, I worked on my strength, and lost body weight. Just as I was preparing for gastric surgery, the road turned again. One week before I was scheduled to have surgery, we discovered I had relapsed -- the leukemia was back. We faced a tough decision to treat the leukemia first, or proceed with the gastric surgery. The safest path is to treat the leukemia first, but this would delay the surgery and stem cell transplant. On the other hand, if we went ahead with the surgery first, there was the risk involved that for a month after surgery I could not be treated with chemotherapy. However, I could be losing weight! We monitored the progression of the leukemia, and made the decision that we would proceed with the surgery, then FIGHT!

During my recovery from the surgery, I had to mentally prepare myself for the next battle with leukemia. This time I knew I was head-to-head with the disease, but I also knew that I had a team behind me. I was familiar with the treatments, and how leukemia attacks. I was not going down without giving it my all! During the recovery from the surgery, the leukemia started progressing rapidly. I was admitted back into the hospital exactly four weeks from the surgery to start my fight. Oh, and by the way, the same drug I had the reaction to in the first round, was again going to have to be administered to me this round. It took a lot of courage to hold out my arm, look at the doctor, and say, "I trust your plan, so let’s do this again."

After a few weeks in the hospital, I was declared back in remission, and was discharged. The next few rounds of chemotherapy were easier, and I did not have any issues. 

In September 2016, I was admitted back into the hospital -- this time for my stem cell transplant. I was prepared. I was told that this chemotherapy regimen was the “Mother of all chemos,” and, "be ready to fight." By this time, I had lost 150 pounds, and was walking 3-5 miles per day. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared for the fight. To say that there were not times during this battle I did not feel defeated would be a lie, but I was ready for it. I was discharged from the hospital ahead of expectations.   

When Discharged from the hospital after my transplant, the discharge nurse stated "We will see you again soon, most transplant patients will return with some kind of issue."  My body fought hard until March 2018 when I contracted Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). I had gotten so weak that I could hardly get out of a chair and found myself admitted back to the hospital for another 6 days, followed by 5 days of home isolation. Physically this was a huge setback and I knew I had to rebuild my strength again. This time I knew I could do it.

Right after my transplant my dentist told me The Chemotherapy killed your teeth. I expect in the next 2 years we will have to remove them. The summer of 2018 I have found myself getting my teeth extracted and dentures put in.

February 2019 I found myself being admitted back to the hospital this time for an outbreak of the Shingles Virus. I had to spend several days quarantined in a hospital room receiving antibiotics through an IV. Since the outbreak occurred on my forehead, we are thankful that my eyesight was not effected.

August of 2019 I cut the back of my leg when my platelets were low. After 10 hours of failing at stopping the bleeding,  This resulted in a trip to the Emergency Room.

In February of 2020 I was told that my body has recovered from Transplant (29 Months of recovery post Transplant).

October 2020 I was Diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer on the left cheek and basal cell carcinoma cancer on the right temple. After having my blood levels checked and cleared by my oncologist, Mohs surgery was performed in November 2020. I kept joking with he surgeon I would be in ER that night for bleeding. While sleeping that night I noticed blood pouring out of the dressing. We immediately rushed to the Emergency Room where it was discovering I had an internal hemorrhage at the operation site. I was sent home after observation. Once  recovered from the first surgery, a second Mohs surgery was performed on my temple. This time the surgeon was very cautions and I did not need to return to the Emergency Room. The next are we focused on was on the top of my left ear. In June of 2021, a biopsy was performed and the site was declared non-cancerous. This officially put me back in full remission from cancer. 

Since Transplant I have had Chronic Graph Vs Host Disease of the skin, mouth and left eye. I am taking a targeted chemotherapy for the GVHD of the skin. This has helped minimize the flare-ups and allowed my skin to thicken and not peel off. This resulting dry skin and open sores are minimized. I am unable to eat any spicy food because of GVHD of the mouth. The GVHD in my eye is under control using eye drops and wearing reading glasses. 

February 2020 I was taken off all restrictions, just to go into COVID-19 quarantine 4 weeks later.

December 2021, I was listed as "Stable", 74 months after diagnosis.

February of 2021 I had twisted my knee and at the time thought it was a muscular Injury. The pain would come and go until January of 2022. An MRI was performed in April 2022 on my knee and I was diagnosed with Bone Infraction. In layman's terms is blood flow never reestablished in the bone marrow around my knee. This has caused the bone to start dying in this area. Short term I am taking anti-inflammatory medicine and rehabilitating the knee. Long term I will need a knee replacement.  

May 2022 more biopsies were completed I was Diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer on the nose and right temple. 

At the time of diagnosis I weight 455lbs. Going into Stem Cell Transplant I was at 300lbs. As of  February 2019 I weigh 160lbs. I had to add some weight back on in case of relapse. If I need to go through treatment again, I need to have an adequate fat storage to get me through. I now currently maintain my weight at 210lbs. The dosage of Chemotherapy a fighter receives is based on body weight. During my fight I was off the dosage charts leaving my oncologist guessing on the proper dosage to administer me. loosing weight and keeping it off is very important in my fight. 

The many obstetrical of this fight has taught us several things. First is to be thankful and grateful for every day/thing you have. Respect and Encourage others, you never know what they are facing. Most importantly is relationships are everything. 

There are three pieces of advice that I tell to any cancer fighter. If you find yourself fighting cancer, then I hope you remember these:

The first is to keep your faith strong. Secondly, keep your mental attitude positive. And, lastly, set goals and drive hard to achieve them. I can not guarantee that you will be successful in your fight, but those things sure helped me get to SURVIVOR!

Visit the "Community Involvement" pages to see current information on what we have been doing during Survivorship.