My son Fred just celebrated his 21st birthday right after new years. He started to feel sick with symptoms similar to seasonal allergies or the flu, followed by bad tooth and mouth pain. This past Monday (Feb 28) I took him to the emergency room to be checked out, and what we figured would be a few hours of our day quickly snowballed into a very long road.

   The ER informed us his white blood count should be under 10,000 yet testing showed it to be 147,000 meaning he had a very serve infection somewhere in his body or a problem with his blood and bone marrow. They did chest x-rays to confirm his lungs were clear and sent him to another hospital that afternoon to see a blood specialist.

     Tuesday morning (Mar 1) he was told he has Leukemia and would need to go to Northside Hospital Bone Marrow Transplant Unit for further testing and diagnosis, where he will stay for at least 30 days. Once he arrived he began treatment with blood transfusions to help correct the dangerously low levels of some components of his blood and get a battery of blood testing done and begin medication including his first chemotherapy drug.

   Wednesday (Mar 2) the doctors did a full body scan with barium to be sure nothing is missed as well as a very painful bone marrow biopsy to determine the details of his case, and told him he has Acute Myeloid Leukemia. We quickly learned AML is a very fast, hard hitting cancer, it can effect the body in a matter of days after forming and does so very severely very fast. His age is on his side as well as the amazing medical team he has.

This morning (Thursday 3/3) he began steroids and oxygen combined with other medication to treat the pneumonia that has started. Now, only days after that ER visit, we are waiting on the results to come in so he can find out the details of how aggressive his cancer is and exactly what is next in his treatment to fight off this disease, and we can find out what we need to do to support him best along the way.

      So far all we know is this will be a very long, painful, scary, fast road. Fred has no insurance, and we live just over an hour from the hospital he will be spending over month at. I'm trying to prepare to afford the gas and food going back and forth to be with him and get him anything he needs to be comfortable and more relaxed as he fights this cancer, as well as try to help him navigate the financial toll that this is going to take. This is something no one can be prepared for, especially not a young adult just trying to start his life. Anything raised by this account will be used to help with all of the struggles coming in this battle. 

  For those who would like it there is an address you can contact me for to be able to send care packages directly to Fred. The hospital does restrict balloons, stuffed animals, and flower so please keep in mind those will not be allowed. Within the next 48 hours we should learn a lot more of what is to come, and hope you will all join us in praying that the news we get is the news we need. I will keep updates posted as well.

Thank you all

Fred Sr