Michael's Road to Remission

“Sometimes life throws you a curveball. You make a huge career change after 15 years. You find a job you don't mind waking up at 4:30am for because you enjoy it so much. You finally get to prove yourself in the welding booth. Then while on furlough due to COVID-19, you're diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. You're only 37 and this is more common in 60-70 year olds. It's an incurable type of cancer, possibly due to chemical exposure at your first summer job from 20+ years ago. Now you have to wait for insurance company approval between treatments with a 20% chance of functional remission. And because your immune system is shot, you can't go back to that awesome job for possibly up to a year. But somehow you still manage to keep positive! It is amazing how friends and family can bring you up, even if the roughest of times. Thank you! ❤” Michael Wehnau (from a Facebook post)

So here is some background information...

My sister Sarah is a pharmacist working at small independent pharmacy in NY and my brother-in-law, Michael, works at a lighting company in Vermont.  They have 3 young kids.    Sarah, while having to continue to work during COVID, had a potential scare of being infected.  After she tested negative, Michael started getting sick as well. He was hospitalized, being treated on the COVID wing as a precautionary until doctors determined he is anemic and had viral pneumonia (which became septic). His symptoms initiated some additional testing to COVID and unfortunately,(and yet thankfully found early enough), Michael was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the blood plasma; Multiple Myeloma. Sadly this isn't Michael's first experience with this cancer as it has impacted his family prior, taking the life of someone very close just a few years ago. While he and my sister continue to raise their family, Michael will be receiving treatment and likely be out of work, while also having to travel to get those treatments. It will be a tough battle that will impact him and their family for the rest of his life, so I want to help raise money for treatment, bills, groceries, you name it to ease the burden. He will fight for the rest of his life and I want to make that fight a little easier-  Please donate!