Dons Leukemia Recovery Fund
Donation protected
Praise God. I am alive.
My name is Don Martin, I am husband to my beautiful wife and father of three grown girls. I've worked hard all my life, always had a job. From my hospital room (57 days), I worked every single day, except maybe four days, two when I had fevers over a 103 degrees, another the day they took my appendix out, and the next recovering from extreme pain from the surgery having the appendix removed.
The bills from all of this have been overwhelming. It is not just the bills from the hospital, doctors and medications, but it is the loss of income from not having the stamina to work like I did before I was sick. My blood counts continue to be lower than normal. My Doctors tell me they may or may not recover, this just might be my new normal forever. I have no savings, no retirement, no pension. My prayer, my hope is that I will be able to continue to pay my health insurance and many other bills to be able to survive. The cost of health insurance is overwhelming and continues to rise each year, with less and less being covered. I know God will provide. Money will be used to defray my costs and to be able to pay back many people I owe money too. I am working 70 hours a week, which if I am lucky is about 40 hours worth of work. Everything seems to take longer to do.
I was diagnosed on September 25, 2014 with AML. AML is acute myeloid leukemia. On that day my life changed forever. It was exactly 2 years to the day and I think the exact or almost exact time that my father had passed away. It was also only about 15 months after my brother had been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma.
In October 2014, I spent 27 consecutive days in the hospital, days 3 thru 10 hooked up to chemo around the clock 24/7. After about 2 1/2 weeks I still had my hair, then it seemed suddenly, I rapidly began losing my hair. I had an infection with a fever during those days as well.
A few weeks later I received my first of three rounds of "consolidation chemo." Chemo on days 1, 3 and 5 while in the hospital. The 1st consolidation round, I wound up with an abscess on my back and an abscess tooth. They lanced the abscess and removed the tooth.
Second round of consolidation much like the second, I got sick again and this time they took my appendix.
Third round of consolidation, the chemo made me throw up. Sick again after chemo, I had a blood infection.
After four rounds of chemo, with many follow up visits, I had 303 needle sticks, 38 blood transfusions, 13 platelet transfusions, about 57 days in the hospital from 7 hospital stays, 12 biopsies, including 10 of them that were bone biopsies. I also had an endoscopy where they did a biopsy and a liver biopsy. I have an enlarged liver and an enlarged spleen.
I am now in a trial study called"Phase I Study of an Oncofetal Antigen ("OFA") Multi-Peptide Immunotherapy ("BB MPI 03") In Subjects with Hematologic Cancer. I'm told I was the first human being to receive the vaccine. Before me it was just the monkey's I'm told. More than scary, a long list of what might go wrong. The hope is that the vaccine will work on me and on many, many people that will benefit as a result of my decision and others that followed me into this trial study. The vaccine they hope will stimulate the growth of "T Cells" to fight off cancer. So far I have received 5 of the 6 injections for the vaccine. Then they will continue to check on me for intervals through the fall of 2016. The pharmaceutical company backing the study will then decide if they want to extend the study and give me more vaccinations.
I need to continue to raise money on an ongoing basis until I can get caught up on my bills, I've always paid my bills on time my whole life and have no money saved. Your help will mean the world to me. I want to be able to function more and more to help my family, my church, my community and to continue to praise God for all he has done. Through God, I know he will stregthen me to do all things.
My name is Don Martin, I am husband to my beautiful wife and father of three grown girls. I've worked hard all my life, always had a job. From my hospital room (57 days), I worked every single day, except maybe four days, two when I had fevers over a 103 degrees, another the day they took my appendix out, and the next recovering from extreme pain from the surgery having the appendix removed.
The bills from all of this have been overwhelming. It is not just the bills from the hospital, doctors and medications, but it is the loss of income from not having the stamina to work like I did before I was sick. My blood counts continue to be lower than normal. My Doctors tell me they may or may not recover, this just might be my new normal forever. I have no savings, no retirement, no pension. My prayer, my hope is that I will be able to continue to pay my health insurance and many other bills to be able to survive. The cost of health insurance is overwhelming and continues to rise each year, with less and less being covered. I know God will provide. Money will be used to defray my costs and to be able to pay back many people I owe money too. I am working 70 hours a week, which if I am lucky is about 40 hours worth of work. Everything seems to take longer to do.
I was diagnosed on September 25, 2014 with AML. AML is acute myeloid leukemia. On that day my life changed forever. It was exactly 2 years to the day and I think the exact or almost exact time that my father had passed away. It was also only about 15 months after my brother had been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma.
In October 2014, I spent 27 consecutive days in the hospital, days 3 thru 10 hooked up to chemo around the clock 24/7. After about 2 1/2 weeks I still had my hair, then it seemed suddenly, I rapidly began losing my hair. I had an infection with a fever during those days as well.
A few weeks later I received my first of three rounds of "consolidation chemo." Chemo on days 1, 3 and 5 while in the hospital. The 1st consolidation round, I wound up with an abscess on my back and an abscess tooth. They lanced the abscess and removed the tooth.
Second round of consolidation much like the second, I got sick again and this time they took my appendix.
Third round of consolidation, the chemo made me throw up. Sick again after chemo, I had a blood infection.
After four rounds of chemo, with many follow up visits, I had 303 needle sticks, 38 blood transfusions, 13 platelet transfusions, about 57 days in the hospital from 7 hospital stays, 12 biopsies, including 10 of them that were bone biopsies. I also had an endoscopy where they did a biopsy and a liver biopsy. I have an enlarged liver and an enlarged spleen.
I am now in a trial study called"Phase I Study of an Oncofetal Antigen ("OFA") Multi-Peptide Immunotherapy ("BB MPI 03") In Subjects with Hematologic Cancer. I'm told I was the first human being to receive the vaccine. Before me it was just the monkey's I'm told. More than scary, a long list of what might go wrong. The hope is that the vaccine will work on me and on many, many people that will benefit as a result of my decision and others that followed me into this trial study. The vaccine they hope will stimulate the growth of "T Cells" to fight off cancer. So far I have received 5 of the 6 injections for the vaccine. Then they will continue to check on me for intervals through the fall of 2016. The pharmaceutical company backing the study will then decide if they want to extend the study and give me more vaccinations.
I need to continue to raise money on an ongoing basis until I can get caught up on my bills, I've always paid my bills on time my whole life and have no money saved. Your help will mean the world to me. I want to be able to function more and more to help my family, my church, my community and to continue to praise God for all he has done. Through God, I know he will stregthen me to do all things.
Organizer
Donald J. Martin
Organizer
Orland Park, IL
