Tony’s road to remission
Hey there everyone! I know a go fund me is SO NOT a me thing to do. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t like asking for help but this time I feel like it’s necessary. let me tell you a quick story and fill you all in
last month on the 15th I was working my normal shift at work but definitely not feeling my best. I was at a 50> on the scale of how I felt. I felt crummy and was dizzy nauseous and just not the best. All of a sudden I felt like I was going to pass out. I called my charge nurse ( for those who don’t know I work in the hospital overnight) and he suggested I go down to the ER to get looked at. I was immediately checked in and was pounded with blood cultures, tests, xrays, CT scans any and all that you could name it.
Those close to me know for the past couple months I’ve been having issues with my stomach, causing nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting and weird skin hives since about March I thought it was the cause of food poisoning or some stomach bug but would later find out it’s something worse.
Back to my tests in the hospital my doctor comes in saying I’m slightly anemic and my blood platelets are really low, along with my white blood cell counts being all out of wack. Basically I was just all over the place. The doctor decides to keep me overnight to run more tests. Then family medicine comes in to examine me more and get a more thorough outlook on my past medical history. I am then taken upstairs to my room. It’s by this time midnight.
by the time I am checked in and in my bed ready to relax and sleep the family medicine doctor comes in to talk to me and it is 2:30 almost 3AM at this point. I told them downstairs that with whatever they came up with to let me know ASAP because I have been wanting answers as to what was causing my pain and suffering since March. To my degree I would now find out tonight on June 15th that it was leukemia. Cancer in my blood, caused by who knows what making me look pale like everyone had said I looked, draining me of oxygen making me so slow and out of breathe and feeling so tired all the time was cancer in my body.
I couldn’t believe it I didn’t want to believe it but it was true and I was alone for the first 2 hrs of it accepting by myself in my patient room without anyone with me. Without my mom without my friends just me in an empty room quietly sobbing to myself trying to get it together for the soon to be emotion that would be piling on with family and friends.
the next morning I was greeted with an oncologist who was spunky and knew exactly what type of cancer I had comes in and says “My friend you have Cancer! The kind I know about!” And begins to show me diagrams and my labs and little close ups of my dna on his phone. He tells me that he’s goin to send me to Denver to Presbyterian/St Luke’s in Denver immediately for my treatment of my cancer. He says there they will do my bone marrow biopsy to confirm
that this is indeed cancer. He can’t say 100% it’s what I have but he’s pretty certain. (Turns out he would be absolutely right) I have APL which is a form of aggressive type of acute myeloid leukemia in which there are too many immature blood-forming cells (promyelocytes) in the blood and bone marrow which is what I’m fighting against today.
From the time of this photo it marked 3 weeks into my chemo & recovery here at Presbyterian/St Luke’s medical center on the bone marrow unit icu. I am alive, I am here, I am fighting, and I need help once I get out, I am not asking for much but just a small assistance with bills and medical stuff I know I’ll need once I’m out on remission with meds and check ups with staying up to date on current bills I already have. Something to keep me afloat. I never ask for help and I hate asking for it but many Pelops point out how i am always one to reach out for help and not one to ask for it. So this time I’m reaching out asking for everyone’s help in making things a little easier for me once I’m out of the hospital. Once I’m done fighting this cancer and fighting this battle that truly came out of nowhere and took my world upside down. Thank you and I do appreciate any and all things you can help out with.
I’m now thankfully out of the hospital & in remission basically, but unfortunately I’m not able to work because of my schedule for my outpatient chemo and having to drive from my home in Evans all the way to Lafayette so I can’t really work my job overnight even if I wanted to. As bills keep coming in & piling up I thought that the cap of 5k would be enough but clearly I was not ready for the outcome. I’ve decided to re open my GoFundMe in hopes that I can pay off the rest of the hospital bills or make somewhat of a dent in them so that I don’t stress as much on how I’m going to pay them.