This here, is an update I never wanted to write. I want to be sitting here, thinking how to phrase an update describing Matt’s wonderful recovery. This is much harder. Cancer is a vicious, unfeeling monster. It does not care that someone is supposed to be fully in recovery and working toward rebuilding a healthy body to walk them into a long future. Because it does not care, I have to write THIS update. For those new to this page, my name is Monique Reese and Matt is my unofficially adopted brother, best friend to my husband and husband to MY bestie :) But back to the yuck I don't want to be writing.

The Leukemia has returned and with it, burdens NOONE should have to deal with. Matt wasn’t feeling as well as his team expected him to be in late fall, early winter. January brought the dreaded news: relapse. He has had to undergo additional rounds of the Blyno (the bagged wearable med) and made the trip to Dana Farber Easter week to find out next steps. Those next steps hold great promise for ultimate recovery, but the journey to get there is daunting and grueling.

Matt requires a bone marrow transplant. An overview doesn’t sound so bad, not fun, but not too awful. Digging into the process tells a different, arduous story. Once the donor is locked in and preliminary steps have been taken, Matt will be admitted to Dana Farber for roughly 6 weeks. During that time he will go through intense chemotherapy and radiation to kill his bone marrow and with it, his immune system, in preparation to receive the healthy bone marrow. He will have next to no energy initially…and initially will LIKELY mean for the first 3 months following the transplant. He will remain inpatient until the transplanted bone marrow begins to graft into his body and begin doing it’s job. Then he will be discharged for phase 1 of his recovery which will roughly last 6 weeks. This will require him to be in a specially cleaned environment (as close to sterilized as possible). He will only be able to go out of this environment once a week to go to the hospital for a checkup. This phase requires special food, specially prepared. It will also require one on one care because with no immune system his energy will be nothing and whatever he does have will be required for the bare minimum of functioning: ie feeding himself, and basic bathroom/hygiene tasks. He will need to stay in the Boston area during this time because travel once a week from Schenectady to Boston is unrealistic at best. If all goes well after this first 6 weeks outpatient, he will get to step down for the next 12 weeks to seeing the doctors once every 2 weeks and he will be able to alternate care between Boston and Albany. So, the first 12 weeks 4-6 wks in patient and then 6 weeks out patient in the area, Matt’s being treated. What about the rest of the family?

Well, Amy is “supposed to” manage a full time job and 2 active teenage kids. While visiting her husband (while inpatient) and then being primary caregiver (phase 1 outpatient 1st 6 weeks).

Now let’s get down to nuts and bolts of this. Financially this is a VERY large mountain in front of them. They will be responsible for 10% of medical costs. That doesn’t SEEM too bad, until you understand how quickly the medical costs add up. $500,000 just for the inpatient stay and transplant is a low average. Then 10% of outpatient treatment and meds of the course of a year. There will be significant travel expenses over the course of 3-6 months as the entire family navigate back and forth between home and Boston (3.5 hours one way), and specialized cleaning/cooking/care needs. Not to mention additional financial burden for support for the kids and maintaining a home while away from it. It is a LOT. You may have seen the total ask and thought holy wow that's a big ask! Totally unrealistic! Yes, it is....unrealistically LOW. It is not out of the question that the medical care will be over 1 million dollars (and a little math shows you 10% is insane) and as mentioned above, there are many other costs involved. We don’t yet know the full extent of this and we WON’T until it is happening. What I do know is this, ANY support you can give will be a blessing to the whole family. This whole journey can be so scary and isolating and lonely. Support through financial means are so helpful AND so are thoughts and prayers, a text, a voicemail, a meal, a card.... There are so many ways to show your support and the reality is, this is a long distance race not a sprint. They need our support and care over the next 3 months definitely, but life may well not return to "normal" for over a year. This isn't said to overwhelm. It is said to let you know you won't miss a window of opportunity to show support. It's said to encourage us to come along side in any way we can. Everyone was SO helpful and generous with outpourings of support in every conceivable way the first go around. Let's join together and do it again! Cancer is an unfeeling beast and together we WILL BEAT IT OUT OF EXISTANCE!