This journey that Ken is on began on July 21st 2016 with a fire ant bite! He was brutally attacked by ants in the backyard before we put down ant poison. He is highly allergic to fire ants.
He ran into the shower fully clothed and turned on the water. I gave him Benydryl and began to strip him! (Darn wasn't the right moment!) Anyway, he went into shock so I called EMS. They were wonderful and got Ken to the hospital. We thought they would release him that same night but they were concerned with his red blood cells being so low. He stayed at the hospital overnight and then came home the next day. The doctors meanwhile decided to send his labs to an oncologist. This is where we met Dr. Guzley, the oncologist.
On October 23, 2016, the oncologist called while we were going to the Kerrville Highland Games and told Ken he was a "mutant" since he had both hemochromotosis (holds iron in red blood cells) and MDS (mylodyspastic syndrome). They actually fight one another but his treatment was to have chemo injected into arm every 3 weeks. This regiment lasted for 3 years where his red blood cells were functional and he was able to live. By the way, his "good" hemoglobin numbers were around 7-8. Healthy individuals numbers are around 15-16. After the week of chemo, he felt pretty awful but Ken has always been a trooper through all this!
Fast forward, late October he just wasn't able to do anything having little strength. We went into oncologist and found his blood level to be at 3. They immediately hospitalized him and gave him 5 units of blood. They also found out that his bone marrow was no longer working...this is when they decided bone marrow/stem cell procedure.
Ken went through all the testing to make sure he is healthy and a candidate for a bone marrow transplant. He passed and on Christmas Eve we found out that he had a perfect match donor!
We are now just waiting for the process to begin. We have no info on the donor or when he will be hospitalized. We do know that once this journey begins, Ken will be in the hospital isolated at 3 weeks and then will come home to a personal care giver (Me!) for the next 100 days. He will have to go to clinic everyday to be checked during this time.
Right now he is relying on transfusions to keep going. He is tired and weak but still manages to get himself into trouble!
This is all we know right now. We are so blessed with wonderful family, friends...prayer warriors!
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