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Oh where do we begin, lets start with who David Colemer is. David has a strong desire to have purpose in his life. David joined ROTC in high school while attending Chisholm High. As soon as he turned 17 he signed up for the Minnesota National Guard. In the National Guard he had many opportunities, he was a tanker, air defense and military intelligence officer. His career in the Minnesota National Guard spanned 26 years and three major deployments, Bosnia, Iraq(23 months), and Kuwait. While on deployment to Kuwait he sustained a major neck injury and many more, this forced into retirement. Because of this David was unable to go back to work as a supervisor for UPS. David truely misses his battle buddies and UPS coworkers. Within 6 months after returning home while going in to a pre op for another injury to his shoulder. He was informed there was cancer in his blood and would be set to Roger Maris Cancer Center. In Sept 2014 the diagnosis came back as Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia with a 17p deletion and tp53. The doctors informed David that we will take a watch and wait approach. We were waiting for the cancer to become more agressive and then start treatment and seach out a Bonemarrow donor. Years passed and in October 2018 the cancer became agressive. David started the chemo drug ibrutinib and his packet was sent out to Dr Chauncey in Seattle Wa. In the spring we came to visit Dr Chauncey and he told us he will be putting David on the Bonemarrow donor list(allogeneic,non related). Prays went out to those that donate. What a gift that they can give. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking of it. We were also told to prepare to stay in the Seattle area for 6 to 9 months once treatment starts. This was a shocker, when looking forward it seems so far away, but soon it will be a memory...In June 2019 we got the call and was told to be in Seattle June 24. David was informed he had 2 donors, donor #1 was a 12 out of 12 match and donor #2 was 10 out of 10. On a recheck of the donors, donor #1 came back with some anomalies. And we would need to push out the Bonemarrow transplant a month to do more testing. Because of the delay in treatment we decided to have the kids come out and visit. On Aug13 the three kids came out to Seattle. What an awesome time we had. We took great pictures and made wonderful memories. We visited Mt Rainier, HoH Rainforest, The Tree of Life and La Push, Washington. It was hard to see them go but we are eager to get things started so we can get home. The testing that was done found out donor #1 could not be used as a donor. On Aug 29 David got his PICC lines in for blood workup, administering medication, and Bonemarrow transplant. While waiting for things to move forward David felt presure in his chest. This gave us a little scare, if there was a blockage in the heart we would need to put of the transplant again for a month. On Sept. 4 he had a cardio catheterization done. The news came back, heart was normal. There was some pericarditis. This news was good we could still move forward and no delay in bonemarrow transplant. On Sept. 6 at 8:30 am David started chemo(fludarabine). On Day -3 @ 8:30 chemo(fludarabine) blood counts are already starting to drop, alittle nausea and fatigue. On Day -2 chemo (fludarabine), today his creatine was high and also needed 1 bag of IV fluids, nausea and fatigue.... soon this will be just a memory.
After a very difficult spring, 2 viruses that nearly took David out and 2 separate scares with blood clots in the lungs. I shed a tear... Davids blood type is inconclusive. Within the next 3 to 4 weeks his blood type should complete changing from O+ to B+. This is a awesome indicator that his donor Bonemarrow Transplant is working. We are sooo HAPPY!
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