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The girls at acting camp this past summer in Rhode Island with some of their new friends

Thank you for visiting Mike Machinski's web page!! I began this site to keep everyone informed of Mike's condition and to remember the order of events ourselves. We could not
fight this battle without the support of friends
(old and new) and our families!


This site was created to keep
friends and family updated on Mike's
lymphoma, stem cell transplant & treatment
progress.
7 years ago, on March 15,2004, Mike was diagnosed at age 31 with
Stage 4B Advanced Hodgkin�s Lymphoma.
Mike is the loving Daddy to our three
daughters, Kylie (now age 13), Mya (now 11)and Emma (now age 10). He completed 5 months of chemotherapy treatments called BEACOPP from March through August '04, having 18 treatments in total. There were hospital in-patient stays, operations and blood transfusions that came with his treatments. He was in remission for just 8 weeks when another lump was discovered on Mike's neck. During the third week of October 2004, we were told that Mike had a re-occurrence. His remission time was much to short. During October, November and December 2004, Mike went through 3 cycles of I.C.E. chemotherapy for Re-occurring Hodgkins Lymphoma. Each cycle required him to be an inpatient at the hospital for four days. This chemo regiment is very aggressive and required frequent blood transfusions.

Since Mike was in remission for a short time and had a quick re-occurence of his disease, the next step in beating his cancer is a stem cell tranplant. Mike received a full Allogeneic re-lated Stem cell Transplant at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas on February 14,2005. On Wednesday, May 18th, we learned that Mike is once again cancer free. On May 22nd, our family left Houston and road tripped back to Pennsylvania. In September 2005, Mike started back at work after almost a year on disability. For almost two months, life felt normal and on November 7, 2005- Mike's PET scan showed that the cancer was back. More chemotherapy followed and on April 6, 2006, came the beginning of three weeks of radiation treatments. The summer of 2006 included 60 radiation treatments for Mike. He had radiation 5 days each week for 12 weeks. From that, the results came back that it had not gone away and in early November, 2006, Mike began chemotherapy again. Through the holiday season 2006, Mike took a chemotherapy pill of 50 mg Vepesid (Etoposide)each day. January 2, 2007, he had another PET scan which showed that the chemo had not been effective in slowing growth of the cancer in all areas. During the monthes of January and February of '07, Mike was on Holisitic Supplements but lost to much wieght and the 3rd week of February, began Radiation treatments again.
Mike has completed over 130 Radiation treatments and numerous chemotherapy regimes over the years. During the summer of 2008, Mike's lungs began to fill with fluid which required many operations and draining. Since then Mike has tried clinical trials because existing medicine has not been working. The current clinical trial that he is on is at NYU and the drug is SGN 35, which is a mono-clonal antibody mixed with chemo. He has been in remission since June 2010 and still gets treatments once a month. Please continue to
PRAY!

Journal

Friday, May 13, 2011 10:02 AM CDT

Well it has been a while but here is an update finally. I am recovering nicely from all of the drama from the winter. I have been taken off of the clinical trial drug to see what happens. My last scan was clean so it is time to venture on my own to see if the cancer will return. There is a good chance that it will return but it is nice to not have drugs coursing through my body for a little while. So pray that the cancer stays away for good. right now I am going to try and start exercising more and get some muscle back on this boney body and just live my life as usual and try and not give cancer a single thought. Becky and I want to just be a normal family for a little while. Not that we are not normal but cancer free normal. Well, for those of you that know us well I guess you are saying they are not normal anyways, and you are right.

We have been busy with soccer and softball. Spending lots of time at softball between Kylie and Mya. I have my nice sunglasses tan going that makes me look like a racoon, which I call my softball tan. We are in the middle of finding a new high school for Kylie for next year since our school is making such drastic cuts. Terrible world where schools can not afford to have music, art or sports. Absolutely unacceptable. Emma is busy with school and can not wait for soccer in the fall. All three of my girls are great students and kids. Becky is busy working her butt of for SilverSilk and traveling all over the east coast promoting and selling. She is Such a hard worker it is crazy sometimes.

Things are status quo right now and we are enjoying the warmer weather and looking forward to the summer and some fun trips. I hope you all are well and that things are bright. Take care and god bless.

Mike

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Hospital Information:

Mike Machinski
70 Ridgeview Drive
Lehighton, Pa 18235

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E-mail Author: mbmachinski@yahoo.com (Mike) & beading@ptd.net (Becky)

 
 

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Note: The foregoing information was authored by the patient, parent or guardian, or other parties who are solely responsible for the content. Such announcements or their content are not necessarily endorsed by CaringBridge, Inc. or any sponsoring agent. This information does not confirm that anyone is or was actually a patient at any facility.
 
 
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