Hello everyone! As most of you are aware, Matt was diagnosed with stage 2 Multiple Myeloma earlier this spring. He had a bone marrow biopsy done on May 26th in which they found about 60-70% of his bone marrow had been taken over by the cancer. The full body CT scan showed that there has been no further damage to his bones, thank you Jesus! He started his chemotherapy in Deer River on June 5th. In the next few months, he will head to the Mayo where they will perform a stem cell transfusion. This will get frozen and they are planning on hitting him hard with chemo after that to kill any remaining cancer cells before they release the stem cells back into his body to start rebuilding healthy bone marrow again! Matt will not only be out of work for the month he has to be at the Mayo but potentially up to 100 days after his transplant is done. It is a crucial time when he will have to be fairly isolated and focus on his health and won't be able to be around alot of people. Matt had an appointment Monday 8/7 where his Oncologist was concerned with Matts's protein levels going up which is a sign the Chemo is not working. They ran some additional tests and requested another bone marrow biopsy to see if any of the cancer has shrunk within his bloodstream. If not, then they will have to plan to push back his transplant at the Mayo and switch to a more aggressive treatment. With all of this comes many stresses for Matt Nina and the 4 kids. Matt and Nina are a couple who would do anything to help anyone they could and we hope to rally around them and help take some of the burden off of them during the critical time where they need to focus on family and Matt getting better. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!