As we have had some questions & confusion for donations, for clarification please note if you donate to the "Tributes" this is a donation directly to CaringBridge to keep the organization a free service for people. None of your tribute donation will go to Matt. If you would like to donation to go toward Matt's expenses, please donate to the GoFundMe page (listed under the "Ways to Help"), or through the following link:
https://www.gofundme.com/4cjgw40 Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place.
Matt, a 28 year old, die-hard Green Bay Packer's fan, was just diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
Summer of 2017 was pretty rough on Matt as he was sick on and off since May -- which is strange, because he's one of those people that never (and I mean never) gets sick. He hadn't used a sick day for work for the previous 5 years. Then in May, Matt went into the doctor for a 105 fever, to which the doc believe he had a sinus infection, and put him on some antibiotics. He seemed to get better, but then in June he got sick and better. Then, in July, Matt went in to the doctor again, because he was sick and had a cut on his knee and cheek that were not healing. The doc was worried about infection, so another round of antibiotics ensued. He seemed to get better after this second round of antibiotics. However, Matt had been really fatigued through out the summer, so when he started to feel sick again this mid-August, we set him up with a doctor's appointment and specifically requested a bunch of tests.
On the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 24th, we went to his appointment with the General Practitioner. When his blood panel results came back, the doc told us we needed to head immediately to the ER because Matt's hemoglobin was extremely low -- his hemoglobin was a 5 (and 13-14 is normal for his sex & age). We went immediately to the ER. Matt received a blood transfusion, and the ER docs began to run blood tests. Upon review of the blood smears, the pathologist was concerned that Matt's white blood cells were indicating Leukemia. He was immediately admitted to the hospital, and received another blood transfusion.
On Friday, Aug. 25th, we spent the entire day going to different specialists, to rule out any other diagnoses. Matt also had a bone marrow biopsy to confirm whether or not he had Leukemia, and if so, what specific type. That evening we were informed by the oncology team that Matt's preliminary diagnosis confirmed the pathologist's -- acute Leukemia -- but we had to wait until Monday to find out the specific subtype.
We spent the weekend meeting the oncology team, and multiple specialists that will continue on with Matt's treatment. On Monday, Aug. 28th we were informed that Matt has Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Matt's treatment includes an initial induction phase of chemotherapy that will begin on Aug. 30th. Matt will remain in the hospital for the next 4 to 5 weeks. Then Matt will have another bone marrow biopsy. Fingers crossed, at that point Matt will be in remission, which will mean he can come home, but will need to have multiple follow-up chemotherapy treatments over the next 5-ish months.
We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
