Kevyn Needs help

Mom and Son get cancer in the same week.

Recently our family had two life-altering events that hit us on the same week, June 15, 2022. Our 19-year-old son is a gifted child in both art and music. Here is a piece that he composed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DxFDnWqFPg

Kevyn’s life stopped when he was admitted to the hospital with what Doctors thought was Leukemia but turned out to be its brother: Severe Aplastic Anemia. That’s where the bone marrow shuts down and no longer makes Red and white blood cells or platelets. Kevyn’s platelet count should be 140 -400 and drops to less than 1 every 2-4 days. He is at risk for all kinds of uncontrolled bleeding. “Severe or very severe aplastic anemia pt.s are at risk for life-threatening infections or bleeding.” https://nationalstemcellfoundation.org/glossary/aplastic-anemia . We are blessed with Dr. Sally Arai at Stanford taking Kevyn’s case. But one of the parents will have to relocate to Stanford for most of 3+ months to stay with, transport, cook special Neutropenic meals and care for Kevyn. He will be going through Chemotherapy, Radiation and then a Bone Marrow transplant. That means we need to rent local accommodations plus regular travel back and forth from Sacramento to Stanford as Natalya and I take turns supporting Kevyn. During the first month, Kevyn will be mostly in the hospital. But then needs to live near enough to his Stanford Medical team for support and several weekly outpatient appointments. With his immune system suppressed, Kevyn will remain mostly isolated and not feeling well in his living space. There is minimal assistance for housing available that doesn’t come close to covering costs.

When it rains, it pours. This is all complicated by the fact that within 3 days of Kevyn’s diagnosis, Natalya, his mother, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She will have a double mastectomy as soon as she can be scheduled for the OR followed by Chemotherapy. She will not be able to drive back and forth to take turns taking care of Kevyn as her own recovery will be at the same time as Kevyn’s. So that leaves Dad to take care of Kevyn and friends and family to help Natalya at home.

We are going to need help. It will be months before Natalya can resume the work she was doing. And I am already out of PTO from work, having been off a month while Kevyn, his Grandmother that lives with us and his little brother Maximus have been in and out of the hospital. Bother and Grandmother are another story for another day. We had already depleted our savings, 401k… trying to get our house ready to sell when this happened. I will be off work for 3+ additional months with little income. We estimate we need to come up with ~ $25,000 take care of Kevyn and just pay minimum bills while everyone is in recovery. We are flying Kevyn brother Alexander back from New Hampshire today as he will be the Bone Marrow donor in a Haploidentical Transplant. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/kimmel_cancer_center/cancers_we_treat/bone_marrow_transplant/haploidentical_transplantation.html

Dr. Arai Feels it is Urgent in Kevyn’s case that we proceed as soon as possible so she is not waiting for a full 10/10 match that would delay the process for a month.

We don’t know how we can do all this. Friends have been supportive and Sent Natalya $ to help. Someone suggested we start a Go fund me. So we are opening this fund to make it easier for people that want to help to do so. Thank you for your support and prayers. All prayers and any amount helps.

Spread the word; Many hands make light work.