Hello everyone,

Matt Krall here. Back on Sept 27th 2021 I was walking up to my apartment (mind you, I was only 3 steps up the stairwell) after running a quick lunchtime errand when I forgot something in my car. Instead of turning around and walking back down the 3 steps normally, I proceeded to walk backwards down the 3 steps. Once I stepped onto the ground, I managed to get tripped up and fell onto my back and hit my head on the concrete walkway. A neighbor of mine that was in his garage happened to see all of this take place. He immediately rushed over and asked how I was doing. I was started to get confused and he didn't feel comfortable leaving me by myself. He proceed to call the ambulance to come take me to the hospital to make sure I was ok. I then started to get more and more confused as time went on. Once at the hospital they took me to get an MRI on my neck and head to make sure everything was ok with no additional injuries. They spotted several lesions on my skull and neck. They proceeded to scan my whole body via MRI to see if the lesions where isolated or spread throughout my body. Unfortunately, the lesions where spread throughout all of my bones in my spine. At the same time, my mental health started to take a turn for the worse. I started to hallucinate because my calcium levels where about 4 times the normal levels in a healthy individual. I remember the doctor coming in and trying to explain what was going on but I could not comprehend the extent of my diagnoses. He diagnosed me with Multiple Myeloma Cancer (basically a blood/bone marrow Cancer). The cancer had basically pulled a lot of my calcium from my bones and into my blood stream and whenever I fell, it pumped all the extra calcium into my blood stream starting my hallucinations. They were sometimes nightmarish and sometimes unique ones. But after several rounds of dialysis they managed to bring my levels down to a normal level. At that time, they finally provided me my diagnosis again since I fully didn't understand whenever they first diagnosed me after I was first admitted.

I would have never imagined that I would end up having Cancer. However I have learned that there are a lot of individuals out there with Multiple Myeloma Cancer and they are all leading their lives normally after fighting and receiving Chemo treatments. Coming up in late January, I plan on having my Bone Marrow Transplant performed at Mayo Clinic. i will go through quite the ordeal with this procedure. First they will provide medications that will increase my stem cell production, they will then extract those "healthy" stem cells through a series of blood draws that will used to replace my cells once I have the big chemo shot. This big chemo shot will eliminate any healthy and non-healthy cells from my immune system. In the simplest of terms, I will be like a new born baby from an immune perspective. They will then re-pump my healthy stem cells back into my bloodstream and those cells will begin to attach themselves to my bone marrow. I will not be able to be around anyone (besides my immediate family who will be my caretakers throughout my recovery). I will be recovering from home but having to go to Mayo Clinic every morning for all of my testing to ensure I am recovering and not getting sick. My recovery time will take about 3 to 4 months. At around 6 months I will need to start getting all new immunizations since I will not have any immunity caused by the big chemo shot.

Throughout my chemo treatments I have had a positive outlook on every aspect of the ongoing treatments. Through a lot of prayers from friends and family, I have had very limited side effects from my ongoing treatments. Without this support, who knows how I would be feeling but I look forward to each and every day I am fighting this battle.

I will be using any funds donated to help pay for the mountain of medical bills that have come with all the treatments I have received so far and the future ones that will be billed during my transplant at Mayo Clinic. If my donations exceed my medical bills I will be donating the remaining funds to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. I have set up a YouTube channel and will be providing updates throughout my whole Bone Marrow Transplant and recovery journey (I will be starting the transplant process sometime in late January). It's titled Matt's World and I will be posting a video soon that explains my journey so far (you will be able to find me once I upload my first video)

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers that you have provided me thus far. It really does help me on a daily basis to fight this battle and hopefully after my transplant I will be in remission. I want to thank you once again for considering to contribute to my Go Fund Me. God bless you and your respective families. #CancerSucks

Sincerely,

Matthew J. Krall