Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We so appreciate your thoughts and prayers for Matt during this time. Thank you for visiting!
On February 9th, Matt was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). He was immediately admitted into the Northside Hospital Atlanta's Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit. During the first few days, Matt went through a battery of tests, scans, and a bone marrow biopsy. Thankfully, the tests and scans all showed that Matt had no other health issues and that the cancer had not spread anywhere else in his body. And as expected, the bone marrow biopsy confirmed the initial diagnosis of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.
Since that time, Matt had a PICC line put in and has been receiving a number of medications: antibiotics, antifungals, and antivirals which are all cautionary and are helping his compromised immune system fight off any infections and viruses that could otherwise complicate his battle with cancer, Hydroxyurea - a mild chemotherapy type drug used to keep his white blood cell count down, and steroids which have been paving the way for a more intense chemotherapy regimen. At the same time he's been getting blood and platelet transfusions as needed to keep all of his "blood" numbers (platelets, red blood cells, white blood cells) in a safe place.
On February 19th, Matt started a 4-week intensive chemotherapy regimen called GRAAL. Depending on how his body reacts, he should be in a place where his cancer is in remission by the end of those 4 weeks and he'll be able to come home. From there he will start a 6-8 month regimen of outpatient chemotherapy with the goal of a full cure.
If you would like to send him notes of encouragement, you can send them to us or directly to him at the below address:
Northside Hospital Atlanta BMT Unit, Room 4228 Attn: Matt Wiggin 1000 Johnson Ferry Road NE Atlanta, GA 30342
Our apologies for the delayed wait but we FINALLY found out today Matt's bone marrow biopsy Clonoseq results. Great news, Matt is still in full remission! Zero MRD. Meaning no residual sequences detected out of a sample size nearing 4 million cells.
More news later but we're loving this year's early Christmas present!
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