Support Gilly’s Fight against cancer

Update:

Gilly has a long road ahead of him. He is getting more tired and somber. The picture of his has it’s what’s being done to him on the inside with lymph nodes, blood, and bone marrow. Once he is good for bone marrow, he will have to stay in the Bay Area 3-4 months on lockdown.

Please help even if it’s five dollars. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers and donations.

Please pardon the lengthy message as I share an update on Mike’s journey. Mike completed the first series of treatments at Stanford with immunotherapy infusions. While it helped to reduce the blood cancer cells, unfortunately the cancer in his lymph nodes and bone marrow appears to have increased.

They had hoped that following the preliminary treatment, Mike could receive radiation therapy to provide relief for his skin. The rashes are unbearable. But the lymph node issue needs to be treated immediately, so they began the next targeted treatment.

Last week Mike started immunotherapy with a different drug they are hoping will slow, and hopefully reverse, the cancer in his lymph nodes. These infusions are much longer than the previous ones and have worse side effects. The small silver lining is this treatment is that it is being done in SLO, at the new UCLA cancer clinic by our airport. The young oncologist working there just happens to have been trained by the primary lymphoma oncologist Mike has been seeing at Stanford.

It is likely they are moving up Mike’s timetable for bone marrow replacement treatment. No date has been set, but Stanford expedited my siblings and I submitting bone marrow samples to see if we are potential matches. Once they start the bone marrow replacement procedure, Mike will be confined to an isolated room at Stanford for several weeks. While they replace his immune system with that of a donor, Mike will be vulnerable to infections and such. Following the hospital stay, Mike will need to remain within 30 miles of Stanford for three months.

As they move forward with treatment, especially the bone marrow replacement procedure, Mike and Amanda realize they won’t have the financial resources to cover the cost of several months of housing in the Bay Area. They have already met with Stanford officials and don’t qualify for hospital housing. Mike and Amanda are quickly depleting their resources with copayments for the PPO Mike had to switch to in order to be seen in Stanford.

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