Our story starts last August when Dan was hospitalized for pneumonia, doctors noticed some abnormalities in his lymph nodes on a CT scan. That started months of testing, scans and biopsies which brought us to March 2024 and a final diagnosis of Mantle Cell Lymphoma. A type of blood cancer that can never be cured. He went through 5 months of Chemotherapy this summer while trying to work and manage his Dad’s life affairs. He tries to pick up weekend hours to cover the time missed while he was too sick to work. After his 6th round of Chemo in November he is scheduled for a Bone Marrow Transplant in December. His team is optimistic this could put his cancer into remission for up to 10 years! A bone marrow transplant is a strictly regimented process managed by his Oncologist at the UofM. This starts with 6 days of organ function testing followed by a series of shots to boost cell production and release from bone to blood over a 2 week period. When enough cells are collected he will be hospitalized for 6 days of BEAM chemo then the transplant will occur. For the next 60 days he will be under strict care of his team and will have many limitations to his daily life that includes a 24/7 caregiver for 1 month as he is in a delicate state of immunity. The BMT program policy determines how far away the patient must live from the hospital. Our home is outside of the allowed radius and we have to explore the options for housing and how this will impact April’s work and overall finances. For his well being, our family could be separated during this process over the holidays and basketball season. We have to be very careful of germs and how to reduce the risk infections, any sign of fever he has to go his doctor's ER. After the first 60 days his appointments will spread out a little and he will get stronger. After day 100, his doctor will start maintenance chemo for the next 2 years. We are praying he gets back his quality of life for many years before this disease comes back into our lives. We are asking for your support to help our family through this difficult time. I know we aren’t the only ones with struggles which makes this a delicate request. Thank you for the prayers and all the love, it's amazing!