Matthew’s leukemia battle

If anybody knows Matthew they know that he has been through a lot. His entire life it seems it has been one struggle after another. He had testicular cancer at nineteen and received a couple of rounds of chemo, then he was told he could consider himself in remission and have bloodwork checked every six months for ten years. He did as prescribed and life seemed good.

That was until in 2004 when he started getting an ear infection. He went to see his family doctor to see what could be done. He was told by his family practitioner that there was nothing wrong with him. Over the next five years he saw doctor after doctor until him and his family moved back to Washington state in 2010. Then he found a doctor who never quit until she had an answer. That was when he found out that he had a pituitary tumor. This tumor was 2mm in size but when you are talking about the brain and the head there is not much room up there for anything else. Matthew had two very awesome doctors perform the surgery and remove what they could of the tumor. After this they scheduled him for gamma knife radiation and was told that he wouldn’t see any change for eighteen months. Wouldn’t you believe it and right around 24 months tests showed his hormone levels started coming down. He was excited and his prayers were answered.

Then came April 23, 2018, Matt wasn’t feeling himself. It takes a lot to keep Matthew home from work. As many know he is a workaholic. When he doesn’t go to work once or twice a week for almost six weeks something has to be not right. It started with Gout in his feet. His feet hurt so bad that it became so difficult to walk. He started using crutches daily and then started using a scooter he borrowed from someone to get around a little easier. This is when Matt noticed he was completely out of breath. The smallest actions or distances were making him extremely tired and leaving him catching his breath. Matt made a promise with his wife that he would go to the emergency the next day. He woke up just as bad and went to the emergency room at Good Samaritan. When he arrived we found out fairly quick that he was anemic. They ran some quick numbers and found that he was down about 2/3 of his bodies blood. He was so critical that nurses were freaking out. They told him later that they have never seen a patient this low before and they couldn’t get a transfusion going fast enough on him. This when the bomb was dropped, he found the reason his blood was so low was because he had Leukemia. In an instance his life was flipped turned upside down. First thing he wanted to make sure his family was set up with anything they need. Matt started his chemo on May 2nd and has been in great spirits. He tries to work from his hospital room because he is afraid of the impact his illness will have on the family, since he is the only one in the family that brings in a paycheck. He is all around keeping people laughing and sharing his daily experiences through Facebook.

Thank you to everyone’s love and support during this difficult time. I know thoughts and prayers mean everything to Matt and his family.