Please help the Lee family
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Please help this beautiful family in a very rough place in their lives. Below is what Teresa wrote last week on Facebook:
Many of you may know that Robert is in the hospital and so many have asked for updates and what’s going on. We have had more questions than answers up until now so here’s the shortened version to catch everyone up on his condition.
Robert was having back trouble after he fell with me on his shoulders (our party trick for 15 years now...) in July and it really never got better and he went downhill quickly toward the end of the year. We got him to a specialist in Memphis on Monday (Jan 15) and expected they would get him scheduled for back surgery. (They found over 9 compression fractures, some of which are “burst” fractures, meaning it’s not a clean break but the bones are splintered or crumbling). They sent him immediately to Methodist University Hospital in Memphis for an emergency MRI and we’ve been here ever since.
We received the diagnosis this morning of Multiple Myeloma (cancer of the blood) that has spread to his spine (thus the multiple fractures in the spine) and is starting to affect his kidneys but not to the point where he needs dialysis. We are waiting for the complete results to know absolutely everything they can know to give us prognosis but the oncologist said she can say with certainty it’s at least a stage II (stages of blood cancers are I, II, and III - most common cancers you might be familiar with have stages I - IV. Blood cancers have a different staging system). They advised they will not do radiation at this time because you only get one shot with that and they want to keep it for later. They started chemo therapy today already in the hospital to get going as soon as possible as aggressively as they can. They also advised, for whatever reason, this cancer is among the most painful of cancers so keeping him comfortable through this process is their highest priority. Which means for a while, Robert probably won’t be able to talk on the phone if you try to reach him.
We have every reason to be so optimistic about his treatment and we are blessed and amazed with the entire staff at Methodist University and The West Cancer Center and know that we have absolutely not landed here by accident.
THANK YOU for pouring out your love and kindness to my family. I wish everyone could take a peek into a day in my life this week and see how good people really are and how we show up for the people in our lives who need our help. It might restore our faith in humanity to see how amazing people really are.
With extreme gratitude,
Teresa
Many of you may know that Robert is in the hospital and so many have asked for updates and what’s going on. We have had more questions than answers up until now so here’s the shortened version to catch everyone up on his condition.
Robert was having back trouble after he fell with me on his shoulders (our party trick for 15 years now...) in July and it really never got better and he went downhill quickly toward the end of the year. We got him to a specialist in Memphis on Monday (Jan 15) and expected they would get him scheduled for back surgery. (They found over 9 compression fractures, some of which are “burst” fractures, meaning it’s not a clean break but the bones are splintered or crumbling). They sent him immediately to Methodist University Hospital in Memphis for an emergency MRI and we’ve been here ever since.
We received the diagnosis this morning of Multiple Myeloma (cancer of the blood) that has spread to his spine (thus the multiple fractures in the spine) and is starting to affect his kidneys but not to the point where he needs dialysis. We are waiting for the complete results to know absolutely everything they can know to give us prognosis but the oncologist said she can say with certainty it’s at least a stage II (stages of blood cancers are I, II, and III - most common cancers you might be familiar with have stages I - IV. Blood cancers have a different staging system). They advised they will not do radiation at this time because you only get one shot with that and they want to keep it for later. They started chemo therapy today already in the hospital to get going as soon as possible as aggressively as they can. They also advised, for whatever reason, this cancer is among the most painful of cancers so keeping him comfortable through this process is their highest priority. Which means for a while, Robert probably won’t be able to talk on the phone if you try to reach him.
We have every reason to be so optimistic about his treatment and we are blessed and amazed with the entire staff at Methodist University and The West Cancer Center and know that we have absolutely not landed here by accident.
THANK YOU for pouring out your love and kindness to my family. I wish everyone could take a peek into a day in my life this week and see how good people really are and how we show up for the people in our lives who need our help. It might restore our faith in humanity to see how amazing people really are.
With extreme gratitude,
Teresa
Organizer and beneficiary
Trish Hamrick
Organizer
Colorado Springs, CO
Robert Or Teresa Lee
Beneficiary
