Help Philip Masters to Complete Chemotherapy

*** Written by Philip's Sister Kayla***

On October 12th, 2022, my brother Philip Masters was diagnosed with Leukemia. 57 days later, he is still in the hospital, two hours away from his family, fighting for his health.

My brother and his partner live in the beautiful village of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, with their two dogs, a kitty, a rabbit, and many fish. Philip Is a volunteer fire-fighter and working Artist alongside his partner Noemi, both often working 12-15 hours a day to run their business and make ends meet.

Unfortunately, the nearest hospital with cancer-fighting capabilities was in El Paso, two hours away from home, and is where Philip has been fighting this disease alone for nearly sixty days.

The symptoms started out small. A few months of small random bruises, and a bit of bleeding around the gums. Then over the course of only a few days, the symptoms went from seemingly innocent, to life-threatening. Philip had gone ghostly pale and had sustained deep purple and black bruises the size of a basketball, across his back and stomach, finally warranting a trip to the ER.

There Philip’s blood panel revealed his platelets to be at a shockingly low 18,000. (With the normal adult range being from 150,000-450,000)

To save his life Philip was forced to leave immediately, without even a moment to go back home to make arrangements for his partner Noemi, who was left alone with their pets and without transportation.

He had left that day for the doctor expecting to come home in only a few hours with a prescription for antibiotics and a warning to be more careful, instead, he was immediately taken two hours away to El Paso, where he was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia.

The treatment has been brutal, 40 days of consecutive chemotherapy using arsenic trioxide through intravenous and oral pills to ensure all the cancer cells were completely destroyed.

The side effects alone have been mind-boggling, after only a week he completely lost his hair, the next his skin began to peel. He has suffered rashes, skin sensitivity, fever, weight-loss, Near constant joint and bone pain and a dozen painful tests and lumbar punctures.

He explained to us once that his skin felt almost constantly like it was burning, and all of this he has suffered through alone.

Through the miracle of modern medicine and sheer stubbornness. Philip has at last gone into remission. However the aggressive approach from this has left him weak, and his immune system severely compromised.

Updated as of 01/19/2023:

Well, hello everyone! First, we would like to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts! You have helped so much it’s been so overwhelmingly appreciated and wonderful! So we wanted to keep you up to date… We are back at the chemotherapy at the outpatient infusion clinic here in El Paso. 5 days a week, with 2 days off, for the next 4 weeks, but…

Unfortunately, we will be going through another 3 more months of outpatient chemotherapy treatments. We get treatments for a month then get a month off, then back for another month, etc.. The treatments are Arsenic Trioxide (ATO) infusions and Vecinoid in pill form. These treatments are very hard on the body but we are standing strong and we are keeping the positive energy going! We are going to fight for life and keep this as strong as we can! The consolidation phase is a series of 1-4, then on to the maintenance phase.

Due to the new news, we are once again asking for help. The new information has taken us by surprise and we were only able to do this first series, this month, only by your help and support! So, due to the new update on treatments, we will have to raise the amount needed to make the changes for the remaining treatments easier… We already appreciate what you all have donated so far, and we hate to ask for help once more, but we are not sure what to do…

Please, only if you can offer a small donation to help! Please don’t donate if you can’t. We don’t want anyone of you hurting your pocketbooks for us. We love and appreciate you all regardless of a donation or not! Even a hello or positive prayers or well wishes is wonderful! Thank you all so much again, and have a wonderful day and stay warm, stay safe! Cheers!

With Love,

Flip