First off we would like to thank everyone for their love and support that has been offered so far. We are writing this blog to keep all of our loved ones informed on our dads situation. We will try and be as straight forward as possible with whatever information we have. Please feel free to post comments and we will relay them to our dad at whatever chance we get.
So everyone knows what is going on, here it is:
Our dad has not been feeling good since the sod season ended and possibly longer. About a month or so before Christmas Diddo the dog tripped him up or got a little rough with him and he broke his rib. Along with the broken rib he ended up getting pneumonia. One day at church he sneezed and his back starting going into uncontrollable convulsions. We took him to the emergency room and they said he had some pulled muscles or something like that. The pain in his back kept getting worse and worse until they decided to do an MRI on his back to see what the problem was. They found a broken vertebrae and told him he needed to go to a specialist. That specialist ended up being an oncologist instead of a back specialist like we all thought. Tests were done and a couple of days later we found out what everyone dreads to hear, IT IS CANCER.
This is what we know, our dad has a cancer called Multiple Myeloma, and in that realm of cancer he has Plasma Leukemia. This cancer is very rare, it accounts for less that 1% of all cancers. Just as most people out there we had no idea what it entailed. What is happening in our dads body is his plasma cells are reproducing very rapidly and not dying off like normal cells do. So he gets pockets of plasma cells built up in different bones and they become brittle and brake very easily. So that explains the rib and back. Our mom and dad went up to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in SLC where he will be getting treated for this cancer. They actually have one of the best doctors in the world that has been specializing in Myeloma for over 20 years, it is because of his studies that Myeloma patients have been able to go from 2 to 3 years to over 10 years. His name is Doctor Guido J.K. Tricot from Belgium. Here is a link to his information, http://www.huntsmancancer.org/patientInformation/bios/tricot.jsp
This past week has been a hard one for everyone. We found out that dads cancer is a Stage 3A, and instead of 1 broken vertebrae he has 5 which would be why he has been in so much pain. His plasma cells are all over in his body and not just in his blood anymore which means he has had this problem for some time now and possibly even a year or more. They are done with most of his tests and we are now moving into the treatments which are scheduled to start ASAP. He got a port put in yesterday, today they drew 5 liters of blood and separated the plasma cells for study and put the blood back in. Either tomorrow or Friday they will be doing surgery on his back to cement the broken vertebrae to help get rid of the pain. On Friday, no matter what, he will be starting Chemo. We are not exactly sure how things will go from there, we do know that he will go through very intense chemo to try and kill everything, then they will harvest his stem cells and give him two weeks off from everything. After that he will go through a stem cell transplant where they will have to live up in SLC for 3 to 4 weeks. They have to be within 15 minutes of the hospital in case anything happens. He will have to do this whole round of treatments twice.
As you can tell this is not going to be an easy road for anyone, especially our dad, but we do ask that you keep him in your prayers. Any and all support is greatly appreciated. We also ask that if you are sick in any way that you send your love and support either through the phone, here, our mom or any of us kids. As with any cancer patient, any kind of sickness is very bad for him due to the lack of an immune system. Thanks again for all of the support and love. We will keep everyone posted with up to date information when we hear anything new.
Our dad also wanted to thank everyone for being there for him.
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