Justin Keelty Keeping up with Keelty

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.

On August 9th, Justin received some bad news after going to Urgent Care twice over the previous week with random aches and pains with what he thought was Lyme disease. His blood work was consistent with acute leukemia. We are fortunate to have a good friend who is an MD at Maine Medical Center who was able to directly admit him to the hospital so we could figure out what was going on. Within 2 hours he was getting more tests to determine his exact diagnosis. On Tuesday, Justin had a bone marrow biopsy that confirmed his diagnosis was acute b-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Initial treatment can be started as more detailed results trickle in to determine his risk factors for relapse and if he would be a candidate for a bone marrow transplant.

Since Justin is otherwise very healthy, his treatment plan is similar to the pediatric treatment plan, which means it will be very intensive but the goal is to cure this cancer. For now, Justin will be undergoing 8 rounds of chemo in the hospital, 21 days apart. Each round will keep him in the hospital for 4-7 days and he will be monitored in the outpatient clinic between sessions. If there are findings from the bone marrow biopsy that indicate the greatest chance of success is a bone marrow transplant, he will go to Boston for treatment.

For now, we are optimistic about his treatment and very confident in his oncology team. We appreciate all the love, support and positive energy, vibes and prayers that people send our way.

Justin has been taking everything this initial week has thrown him with amazing strength, courage and positivity. We know he will crush this cancer and it is one blip in his journey.