Support For William's Lymphoma

My husband, William, received news on March 2, 2018, that he has Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a rare blood cancer that affects the white blood cells, that help fight off infections. We kind of knew something was wrong when he would get out of breath and had night sweats off and on for about a year. We just assumed it was a combination of his weight and high blood pressure. He had even been sent home from work a few times because he about passed out. He was one of those guys who didn't want to go to the doctor.                                                                                                                                                                                  On February 8, 2018 A visit to our family doctor showed swollen lymph nodes in his neck. About a week later, he was having a biopsy of those nodes. While waiting on results, the morning of February 19th, I took him to the ER with pain in his upper left side. It was confirmed he had a very enlarged spleen. The ER Doctor also told us he had some kind of lymphoma. Our world came crashing down but we needed to know for sure.                                                                                                                                                                                                                February 21st was when things became real. The visit to the oncologist to only find more swollen lymph nodes. Another appointment was made to see a surgeon on February 28th to remove a couple of the nodes, which leads to confirmation of MCL just two days later. From then on it's been challenging.                                                                                                                                                                            March 14th, on William's 52nd Birthday, he was having a bone marrow biopsy and a port put in. The next day he had his first chemo treatment. That was Cycle 1 where he received Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubicin, Vincristine, and prednisolone.  A week later he was admitted into the John Stoddard Cancer Unit in Des Moines because his white blood count was non existent. He also developed pneumonia and was in the hospital Five days.                                                                                                                                                                                  When released from the hospital treatments were every 21 days. Cycles 2, 4 and 6 he was given Rituximab and Cytarabine, which was high dose and he had to be in the hospital two days with these. Cycles 3 and 5 was called the R-Maxi Chop 21.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Due to his condition, he exhausted all his FMLA and was terminated from his job of almost 20 years. I am currently on continuous leave from my job to care for him. It has been financially and emotionally hard for us and we are ones that would help anybody out when we could.  Unfortunately, we are now the ones needing help.  Any donations would greatly be appreciated, as well as lots of prayers!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   In Closing: He is going into the hospital for at least a month for 6 days of intense chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, which will wipe out his immune system and make the next Six months to a year even more of a financial strain.  Thank You and God Bless!