Hello everyone. My name is Vitalii Ilnytskyi and in
2021, due to being exposed to large amounts of radiation
when I was in the military at 28 years old, I was
diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma stage 4B. It was
discovered because I was having difficulty breathing, and the
evaluation showed the tumor was wrapped around my
heart’s blood vessels. It was so aggressive and large, it
pushed my left lung aside in my chest, essentially strangling
me from the inside.
Please consider helping me regain my life, and treat this
aggressive cancer through getting the necessary medical
treatment in Turkey. Under the current situation in Ukraine
and the war, no doctors or therapists can provide treatment
during this crucial time in my recovery. With gratitude,
please see my story below and please help if you are able.
This tumor is very aggressive and needed to be shrunk with
chemotherapy in order for it to be surgically removed.
It was decided I had to undergo surgery to remove part of
the thymus gland and a portion of the lung because they
believed the tumor had metastasized into the lung as well.
 
The recovery took about a week. It was very painful to
breathe, cough, and the left lung kept failing, but fortunately,
and over time, I seemed to have regained some strength
and the ability to breath.
 
Immediately after discharge from the hospital, I started
chemotherapy - two courses of BEACOPP esc. 
On day 14 of the therapy, I woke up with severe back pain
and after suffering for almost three hours, my family called
an ambulance because the pain was simply unbearable.
 

As the pain intensified, an ambulance took me to the hospital
where I was injected with painkillers, which unfortunately
gave little relief. I could not sleep, could not even lie down
without excruciating pain. Truly, those three days and nights
were pure hell. The doctors thought this was a side effect of
the strong chemotherapy I had received.
 
Once my condition had stabilized, I decided to go back to
work, thinking that I could combine chemotherapy and work.
However, the PET CT scan performed after the completion
of the second course had shown that remission did not
occur, and that further treatment was required.
 
In the beginning of the third course of a less intense
chemotherapy agent, everything seemed to be fine, but
considering the previous experience, I was ready for the pain
to come, which it did after the fourteenth day of treatment.
Morphine once again did not help, but this time the pain
receded in just two days. And from this moment, the most
interesting phase of my story began.
 
As I was waiting for the 4 th course, I got sick with a common
cold. At first, I took regular OTC medication, and all seemed
normal. In order to get rid of the cold once and for all, I used
an antibiotic. A few days after that, my condition began to
worsen. I started experiencing pains everywhere - my arms,
my neck, my legs, and finally in my back. A few days after
that, a 104 degree fever developed which was impossible to
shake off. Two days of this type of condition had rendered
me immobile, and once again, I had to go to the hospital for
emergency treatment. After two days of suffering, I finally
received a two-prong diagnosis.

 
First - I had a sepsis (total body) infection, most likely due to
pneumonia. Potentially life threatening condition due to my
immunocompromised state.
 
Second - Pathological compression fractures of the 3rd and
12th thoracic vertebrae.
 
The sepsis treatment took 27 days in total with seven
courses of daily IV antibiotics. Naturally, with this type of
treatment, the chemotherapy had to be stopped immediately.
At least, the back pain had subsided little by little, and I was
ordered to stay in bed for 2 months, wearing a medical
corset, avoiding any movement. No matter - I could not
move even if I wanted to. Once the sepsis resolved, I
restarted a lighter version of chemotherapy - three courses
of ABVD.
 
Two more months passed, and I was finally ready to assume
a vertical position, but not so fast… The CT scan revealed
that the affected vertebrae had collapsed even more. The
calcium framework of my vertebrae had been compromised
by tumor, and/or the steroid treatments. I was looking at 45
more days of immobility at least. At this point, my
depression set in.
 
Finally, after four months in bed I was allowed to stand up.
At first, all I was capable of was to stand for two minutes. But
four minutes the very next day. Eight minutes after that, and
so on.
 
The first day I was able to stand with assistance, was
February 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. The conflict
has devastated my ability to get any medical care in Ukraine
at this crucial time in my treatment. The technology to
assess and treat my cancer and spine issue is centered in
Kyiv. And even if I was able to get to that city, there are no
doctors or therapists at the clinics to treat me. As the war
progressed, I had to go to the city of Chernivtsi to continue
onto the next phase of the oncology treatment - the radiation
therapy. The horrible pain in my spine was provoked by an
even more horrible diagnosis - I had vertebral metastases.
Upon more testing, it was confirmed that the disease has
now affected my entire spine, as well as the pelvic bones.
 
Unfortunately, this condition is not something that can be
treated in Ukraine under the current circumstances in my
war-torn country. My only option is to try getting treatment in
Turkey, which requires significant funds to cover the
associated medical costs, which now include a bone marrow
transplant. Currently, my only alternative is to stay in
Ukraine, facing inevitable disability and a slow painful death.
This was my preference because I didn’t want to place such
a financial burden on my family. My prognosis for recovery
is favorable being I’m only 28 years old and my doctors say
there has been progress toward resolving this cancer, being
the chemotherapy has shrunk the tumor substantially. But
until the cancer and the fractures in my spine are completely
treated, my current situation only forestalls inevitable
progression and an ugly fate. My family has limited means,
and if not for this war, I would seek care in my country. But
as it now stands, my only hope is to raise the necessary
financial support to help me beat this cancer.
Please feel free to contact me directly -
https://www.facebook.com/vitaliy.ilnitskiy.12  
https://www.instagram.com/help.vitalii.ilnitskyi 
WhatsApp: +380 93 7196446