Support for CJ Busby

Hi, my name is Caitlin. I am raising money to support my brother, Christopher Busby (CJ) as he awaits his bone marrow transplant. CJ's medical journey started at birth, he was in and out of the hospital his entire life with an extremely rare immune disease. This means many things, but as a child, to me this simply meant that CJ was sick a lot. He's had pneumonia over 60 times in his 25 years, there have been countless hospital stays, many, many doctor’s visits, lots of tears and worst of all fear…fear of the unknown. Through it all CJ, my parents and the rest of our family endeavored to have him live as normal a life as possible. To that we've been successful. CJ graduated from Kennett High School in 2011 and then went on to graduate from Penn College of Technology in 2015. He has always been active in sports; he played a lot baseball, tennis and once he was even on a badminton team called “Team Shuttle Cocks". ‘Insert eye roll’
In college CJ was lucky enough to find the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, his now fiancée Katt. CJ and Katt began planning the ultimate fun wedding at Hershey Park, they we're supposed to be saying "I do" May 31st, 2019, when something very unexpected happened. December 31, 2018, Katt called my parents to tell them that she was taking CJ to the hospital. This wasn't a huge surprise, as CJ's health had been deteriorating over the past couple months prior to this. An abnormal weight loss, extreme exhaustion and a constant cold being some of his more noticeable symptoms. Hard headed CJ had been holding out on going to the hospital because he was supposed to start an experimental study at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, in a few weeks. We were grateful Katt had finally convinced him to go get checked out. Just as many times before, we had all thought CJ was suffering from pneumonia again. Imagine our surprise when a few days later he was diagnosed with stage 3, large B-cell lymphoma a form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is a type of blood cancer.
I will forever remember how scary CJ's time in the hospital was. This was fear as we never imagined, this was unknown territory to us. My family is amazing at coming together in times hardship; I will always remember every one of us not wanting to leave CJ's side through his entire hospital stay. At least one of my parents was constantly at his bedside, my sister took time off of work and flew up from Georgia just to spend a few days with him, our younger brother put going back to college on hold for a semester to be able to stay home. CJ's fiancée juggled being at the hospital, taking care of the animals and going to work seamlessly. My husband stayed with CJ several times, though his greatest achievement was attempting to keep me sane through this journey. Even my two year old daughter (CJ's goddaughter) went to the hospital a couple times to see CJ and cheer him up. All of our extended family, in-laws, friends, co-workers, even acquaintances played a crucial part in helping us cope through his time in the hospital and beyond.
On January 8, 2019, CJ began his chemotherapy journey at a local hospital. Then a little more than a month later he began a new, more aggressive chemo treatment at NIH, where he ended up being treated for both his cancer and immune deficiency. He was subjected to several rounds of five day long chemotherapy sessions. The treatment definitely took its toll on CJ, but we are happy to say that it worked. As of March, CJ was in remission...but not out of the woods yet. His doctors explained that his cancer has a very high chance of coming back because of his immune disease. We have recently discovered he is only 1 of 50 people with this rare immune disease and of those 50 people he is the 6th person to be diagnosed with lymphoma. There is no cure for this disease, but an experimental treatment protocol is now being developed. Doctors believe that a bone marrow transplant is the key to solving this puzzle that CJ has had to deal with his entire life. The bone marrow transplant is not a cure for his disease or cancer and can come with many complications but the rewards outweigh the risks. After several tests, a bone marrow donor has been found and on June 13, 2019 CJ is scheduled to have his bone marrow transplant at NIH.
There is still a long road ahead. CJ will be staying in the hospital for 30-45 days in isolation while his immune system essentially re-builds and to be sure there aren't any complications from his transplant. After his hospital stay he must be within 20 minutes of NIH for 100 days after his transplant. CJ will not be allowed to drive and will need 24/7 care when he leaves the hospital. CJ will, fortunately, be able to work remotely a little bit, but not too much as his doctors want him to focus on his recovery. His fiancée, Katt will be taking a leave of absence from her job to provide the mandatory 24/7 care he needs to get through this process.
This is why I am asking for support for my brother. We want to ensure that both CJ and Katt can fully focus on his recovery and health. We do not want them to worry about where money for groceries or rent will come from. For the first time in not only CJ's life but my parent's, my sibling's, my family's life we may be able to find more of a solution rather than a band aid. This transplant for this type of disease has only ever been done 4 times...the findings from CJ could possibly save someone else's life in the future.
CJ's future is bright, he has many things to look forward to; a wedding, a career, a family, a life time of fun and now his health is included in that list. Thank you for taking the time to read a little about our lives. On behalf of CJ and the rest of my family, please accept our extreme gratitude for showing your support for my brother.