Jacob "Pocho" Bukoski

On a tiny island in the Pacific Kauai, Hawaii, with less than 70,000 local population, community and helping each other as one Ohana (family) is of utmost importance. We at Kauai CrossFit are deeply rooted in our members and our mission, Faith, Family, Fitness and Resilience. One of our member's brothers' who is 11 years young, was recently diagnosed with severe Aplastic Anemia, currently requiring immunosuppresant medications to attempt to repair his bone marrow production of red blood cells as his one and only sibling was not a match for Stem Cell Transplant.  

We are hosting a WOD (Workout of the Day) on Saturday November 21, 2020 @9:30AM at our gym, Kauai CrossFit (3-3131 Kuhio Highway, Lihue HI) in honor of raising funds to assist Jacob "Pocho" Bukoski and his family as well as raising awareness about Aplastic Anemia and the lack of Pacific Islander Stem Cell Transplant donations/recognition. 

More information on 'Be The Match' and how you can virtually sign up on their registry to follow. 

Please read Pocho's story below. We appreciate your time and support and helping to continue to grow Pocho's RESILIENCE while fighting this disease!

Mahalo, 
Kauai CrossFit Ohana

Life as we knew it has been turned upside down since Aug 2020. Our son Jacob Bukoski aka- “Pocho” began not feeling well, looking pale, occasional fever, and just not quite himself. We took him to the doctor on a Saturday, and the next thing you know we were being medi-vac to Kapiolani Hospital. As you can imagine we feared the worse, our faith in God has been the only thing sustaining us as a family. 

The tests began, blood transfusions, specialist after specialist, medications, IVs, and more tests, and praise the Lord it was not cancer. Then the question was, if not cancer, then what is going on? Finally, after a long initial stay at the hospital and short stay at a hotel we were discharged with a diagnosis of some type of fungal infection that was for some reason suppressing Pochos blood cells from reproducing like they are supposed to. So, we came home to Kauai with a plan to return to Oahu weekly for blood transfusions awaiting a few more tests that would take about a month to get results. Well those plans never seemed to work out as Jacob continued to decline in strength, his skin was very fragile and easily bruised, he remained pale, and still not our same Pocho. Week after week we would either fly to Oahu as planned, or its sad to say, but Pocho became very familiar with the ER, ambulance rides, and the small airplane. Over time all the tests all came back negative, Nada, nothing. We did not understand, what is happening to our son! Was this a test of faith? We questioned the Doctors and the answer was he may need a donor for bone marrow transplant, for some reason its not producing on its own, that sometimes this happens without cause, they termed it “Idiopathic Aplastic Anemia”. We finally had a diagnosis. So now what?

Our daughter Tori would be the candidate to donate bone marrow if anyone, but unfortunately, she was not a match. So, the plan was a very strong cocktail of medications called immunosuppressants given through a PICC IV line that basically kills everything so that the bone marrow can hopefully restart producing again. The scary part is these medications are potent and have a lot of side effects such as sores in his mouth that make taking his much-needed medicine difficult and eating a chore. The good part for him is he can eat anything he likes whenever he likes, that is whenever he isn’t nauseous. 

This process is very long, and we could see improvements over the next 6 months. However, during this treatment Pocho could get very sick as we will be defenseless and has nothing to fight off any sickness. Analogy of disease/treatment to Pocho; “We asked Pocho, “what is a quarter back without his offensive line?” Pocho answered, “dead meat”. He is correct, this is a very critical time for him. 

He has been hospitalized at least 5 times since the start in Aug until now, he is a fighter, and we thank God for all the wonderful healthcare providers that care for him at Kapiolani Hospital, especially one Senorita named Dr. Nelly Guitierrez. Let’s just say Pocho is eager to learn Spanish. LOL. But really, she has gone above and beyond for our son; even to spend time with him on her lunch break, or when she is off shift. She has brought him so much comfort in a time of uncertainty, and fear. We could not be more blessed with his care that he has received. 

We have faith in God that he will see us all through this. We give him all praise and glory for everyday we have with our son. Amen. 

The Bukoski Ohana