Background Story
As many of you already know, last fall our family was devastated when our beloved son and brother Chris was diagnosed with the life-threatening blood cancer, Acute Myelogenous Leukemia or AML. As a seemingly healthy young guy, this was the last thing any of us ever expected and we struggled with the gravity of the situation. As many of you reading this- our wonderful family and friends- rallied around us, we gathered the strength required to fight this battle alongside Chris.
In the first few days of last September, as we were absorbing all we could about this horrible disease, were relieved when the world renowned cancer center, MD Anderson in Houston accepted Chris as a patient. Just days later we traveled to Houston where we soon learned we were unprepared for what his first induction round of chemotherapy would be like. It was by far the most difficult experience any of us had ever been through, all while Hurricane Ike was rolling through Houston... an added bonus! BUT Chris endured and the months to follow proved full of many more hardships as well as triumphs.
Along the way, Chris has shown enormous courage and strength. He has spent countless hours and days in hospitals and doctors offices, received innumerable blood transfusions, overcome serious infections and heart complications not to mention having to deal with constant financial and insurance hurdles around every turn.
So when we learned after many months of treatment that his leukemia had gone into remission, we were thrilled beyond belief. While being in remission meant temporary relief from some symptoms, he was still required to continue with outpatient chemo to keep him there. In February he was happily able to move back to Austin and into an apartment with his devoted girlfriend Sue.
From the beginning, the talk of a bone marrow transplant has been one that has loomed as part of our near future. Because a successful transplant is the only known cure for AML, we were thrilled when a perfect donor match was located in March. The transplant process is a long and risky one, laden with with risks and involving an intense hospital stay. Our family was preparing for this transplant process (which will require a minimum of three-month stay in Houston for our family) to begin perhaps in the next month or so, when last week the doctors informed us that Chris had slipped out of remission. This sudden downturn was something that neither the doctors nor us saw coming. Knowing remission is extremely important to his overall health as well as being necessary for a successful transplant, this was devastating news to us.
In response, the doctors have ordered a second six-day induction round of chemo starting tomorrow, April 28, 2009, in hopes that this intense therapy will put him back into remission and therefore eligible for transplant.
We are approaching this next stage with much hope as well as trepidation. Using the "Journal" feature of this site, we will be sure to keep you all informed along the way. We sincerely appreciate everyone keeping Chris and our family in their thoughts and prayers as we continue along this perilous journey. We could not have gotten this far without all of your amazing love and support.
To learn more about AML visit www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_myeloid_leukemia
