Support Simon's Battle Against Lymphoma

Hello! My name is Taylor and I am fundraising for my friend Simon Mans.

On the night of Friday December 20th, Simon began experiencing immense abdominal pain and went to the ER the following morning as he thought his appendix had burst. It was thought to be the stomach flu at first but luckily, they ran some tests to see if something else could be wrong. They discovered that Simon’s White Blood cell count was abnormally high and Red Blood cell count was extremely low. Some facts - The function of White Blood cells is to protect the body from infection and disease, and the Red Blood cell’s function is to carry oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues and carbon dioxide back to the lungs.

After receiving these results, Simon was sent to receive a CT scan to see if they could find anything else. The results came back shortly after, and they had found that there were multiple lesions on Simon’s liver. Unfortunately, they were not able to get an appointment made at a local Fairview Hematology department until January 15th. Not knowing the severity of his condition, Simon decided to wait until he could get an appointment with a local hematologist.

Between December 21st - 25th, Simon spent Christmas with his family and worked as much as he could, thinking the pain would subside. He was waiting for Fairview to get back to him about potentially getting in sooner with a specialist, which unfortunately never happened.

Thursday, December 26th - Simon was not feeling any better and thought it would be better to try to get answers sooner than later. Simon’s parents began the process to schedule an appointment at the Mayo Clinic which starts with 2 phone Consultations to go over his health history and other basic info. Simon was then told that someone would be contacting him that following Monday to schedule an appointment with a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

Friday, December 27th – Sunday, December 29th - Simon was having a hard time sleeping and noticed that his neck pain was becoming unbearable. The next morning, he got ready for work and shaved his beard but noticed that the left side of his neck had a lot of swelling. You’d think at this point he’d give in and not go to work, but no.. he pushed through the pain and went to work as scheduled. Simon ended up leaving work early on Sunday to go back home to show his parents how swollen his neck had become and to come up with a game plan.

Monday, December 30th - After seeing how serious the swelling was and not having an appointment scheduled yet, Simon’s dad brought him to the Mayo Clinic ER in Rochester in hopes to get some answers on a diagnosis. They got in immediately and after going through a similar panel of tests and scans as before. The scans came back and determined that Simon had tumors on the left side of his neck wrapped around his jugular and multiple masses in the center of his chest. This was devastating news as they now knew that there were tumors in Simon’s neck, chest, abdomen, and liver. Due to the location of the mass in Simon’s neck, not knowing what this was or if the swelling would worsen, Simon had to be admitted into the hospital in Mayo’s Hematology department.

Tuesday, December 31st - Simon had a biopsy of the swollen tissue on his neck. He was told that this is likely Lymphoma and that they would have an exact diagnosis in 3-6 days.

Wednesday, January 1st - Simon stayed in the hospital for additional testing, monitoring, and visiting with friends and family.

Thursday, January 2nd - Simon began taking steroids to reduce the swelling in his neck. More visiting and awaiting test results.

Friday, January 3rd - Simon finally received his official diagnosis. He did know that it was a form of lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. He was initially told that there were 50 different types of Lymphoma – 48 are treatable, 2 are not. Thankfully, Simon has the most common and the most treatable form of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Now that the doctor’s knew what this was, they did not waste any time and started treatment. Simon received his first cycle of chemotherapy to battle Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We are told that this will take 4-6 months as long as his body responds well to the treatment. Simon was not allowed to go home until his pain levels subside.

Saturday, January 4th – Simon was taken off all I.V. hoses and monitors around noon. He has almost completed his 1st round of chemo and is in high spirits. He needs to take an injection on Jan 5th to stimulate his white blood cells in his bone marrow. We are all hopeful he can be discharged after his injection so he can get home to begin his treatment locally.

Simon is doing okay - given the circumstance, but is still experiencing a lot of discomfort. We are hopeful that with the beginning of treatment the tumors will shrink, thus relieving some of his pain.

Simon asked me to help organize this page as he gears up for the biggest battle of his life. The cost of treatment, hospital bills, lost wages from work and other costs related to his illness, is a burden that I hope we can all come together to help alleviate. If you are able to donate, it is greatly appreciated. If you are not able to contribute financially, please share and send lots of prayers! Simon is not out of the woods yet, but things are looking on the upside.

Please keep Simon and his family in your thoughts and prayers while he begins this next chapter. Updates to come.

Please follow the Caring Bridge Website for updates.

Link:

https://www.caringbridge.org/site/040cc311-ca1d-11ef-8c8d-f9fe54c4f8a1?utm_source=website_share&utm_medium=share_button&utm_term=&utm_content=link_share_button&utm_campaign=private_home_page