Ricky Bowen

First post: Aug 23, 2021 Latest post: Oct 8, 2021
Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using this to keep family and friends updated in one place. This will mostly be update by me  (Maggie Brannon, Ricky's daughter). I will use this to let everyone know what is going on with daddy and how we can all join in prayer for him to make a full recovery and best support him and mom. 

As most of you know Daddy was unfortunately diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (MM) in 2013 and it went from smoldering disease status to active and      rapidly growing quickly and he started treatment later that year followed by a stem cell transplant on May 1st 2014. We were hopeful and excited that this would be the cure he needed and though it was not a cure it has given us 7 and a half years with him to make memories and to live life. Daddy is a fighter and he is strong in his faith and has always leaned on Jesus, his family and friends to get him through the challenging days and has never lost hope and we will not lose hope either. Daddy has been fighting MM day in and day out since 2013 and now he is about to embark on his next part of his journey. Daddy is going to be    undergoing Car-T therapy treatment at Emory, he started the process in July by having his cells collected for this procedure. 

It's a confusing process but simply put...daddy had his T-Cells which are part of the infection fighting cells of your immune system collected in July, then they are 'trained' or engineered in a lab to identify and kill malignant multiple myeloma cells. So basically his cells were collected in July and sent to 'school' to learn how to fight and now daddy will have strong chemotherapy to kill his T-cells that currently have MM in them and then the engineered or smart T-cells will be reinfused into daddy's body in hopes that they will then attack the MM cells and prevent them from replicating and rid his body of this disease. 

Momma and Daddy took a lot of time to decide if this was the best course of treatment for daddy, met with many doctors and spent lots of time in prayer for God to give them a peace about what to decide and they both along with us as a family feel like this is the best next step for daddy. Like many other cancer treatments this does not come without risk but we chose to trust that Jesus has provided this treatment and the science to create this opportunity and we hope and pray it changes daddy's future for the best. 

I will ty and update this site several times a week to let family and friends know how daddy is doing and how you can join us in prayer. We love each of you and we are so thankful to have each of you in our corner loving, praying for us and supporting us. 

We claimed this verse over daddy's treatment in 2014 and claim it again now...
"Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." Habakkuk 1:5

Thank you for your time, 
Maggie and family

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