Steve's diagnosis came in January of 2011 after months of not feeling well. He had been struggling with learning new concepts, a shorter attention span, and pains in his arm and eventually his chest. Also, his joints began to hurt more and more and even had bruising on his body.
He was rushed to the hospital near the end of January because of chest pains. After hours of putting him through heart testing the blood test came back with extreme amounts of immature white blood cells. It was then he was diagnosed with CML Leukemia. CML stands for "Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia".
His doctor started him on a drug that would attack the rogue chromosome and inhibit the "BCR-Able" malfunction. The drug lasted just over 2 years.
April/May of 2012, Steve fell out of remission and the doctor started the second drug. After a few weeks of complications, Steve reacted well with the second drug. Unfortunately, this inhibitor only lasted 1 year.
NOW, Steve is out of remission again with his bone marrow even weaker. His immune system has been too low to go to work or be around crowds. He has been advised by his oncologist to switch to another drug, plus visit a Bone Marrow Transplant Hospital. He had the appointment and the information was very disheartening. The transplant would consist of a year off of work, only receiving 60% of his pay. He would be in one room for 4-6 weeks because of the high chance of infection. They would flush his marrow out completely with chemo and radiation, and then put the donors marrow into his blood to begin producing new marrow in his bones. He would then have to take anti-rejection drugs and anti-biotics to keep him alive and have around the clock care for months. Little by little he would be weaned off of the anti-rejection drugs. Every year of survival would be cause for celebration as CML patients only have a 20% chance of surviving the bone marrow transplant process.
Finding a donor is another hurdle. Steve's siblings had the highest chance of being a match, and even that chance was only 25%. All 3 of his siblings were tested and none of them are enough of a match. The next step would be to open up the search to the National Blood Bank of willing donors.
On the other hand, Steve has started nutritional and alternative measures to help kill the cancerous cells and give his body life. He has ceased the conventional protocol (some of that due to a delay in the new drug arriving). He has another blood test this week and if he has optimistic results then he will continue to naturally kill his cancer and will not take the new drug. Each time Steve's body rejects one of the drugs and starts another one, his cells and his bone marrow weakens and if his cells and marrow continue to weaken then he'll have an even lower chance to beat this disease.
Where Steve is now is very scary. His life is on the line. We're asking for PRAYER, WISDOM, and HEALING. There is more out there than the traditional way. More than we ever knew! There are many doctors taking an alternative approach toward body alkalinity and nutrition instead of chemo, radiation, and surgery as the way to fight cancer.
We are under a lot of stress, emotions, and concerns. We need God's guidance and answers. THANK YOU all for your love, friendship, prayers, help, and resources. We know you care!
For ways to help us through this you can click on the tab "Ways to Help."
No comments:
Post a Comment