On April 15th my daughters fiance' Tony, went to the ER, cause he had been fighting what he thought was a cold/bronchitis, and being stubborn like most of us guys, he let it go untill he had no choice. The hospital did x-rays and found lumps in his lungs, no fluids that would indicate pnuemonia, or bronchitis but swollen lymphnoids, in his lungs, he also had swelling on the sides of his neck(more lymphnoids). Well, they drew blood and tested it and found his white blood cell count was very, very low and shipped him off to a hospital that specializes in cancer in St. Louis, a bone marrow biopsy and a week later confirmed that he has Non Hodgkins B cell Follicular Lymphoma-stage 4.He just turned 22 on Feb. 26.He cant work, and he and my step- daughter, and 3 year old grandson(she's due again with 2nd baby in Sept) had to move in with us. I guess Im posting this thread cause I can tell there's a lot of young peeps on this forum and hope this would give them a heads up to the fact that things like this can happen at any time,and we shouldnt think it couldn't happen to us and if you're sick,SEE A DOCTOR,AND GET YOURSELF CHECKED OUT!!ASAP!! Don't wait guys/gals. This kids going 15 rounds with the heavyweight champ of death,and we are praying he fights the good fight and goes into remission(3rd Chemo treatment coming up) Lets make the best of our time/life while we are here, it could all be gone so quickly.Thanks for reading this.
sorry to hear of your bad news. i lost a sister to cancer in 2000, and some friends in the past. my sister was living in dayton ohio and was diagnosed with a pea sized cancer. we moved her to the uab hospital in birmingham alabama ( one of the best cancer centers on the planet, they were the best people ) in the time it took the medevac her from ohio to alabama her cancer grew to almost the size of a baseball. cancer is one snake mean son of a b*tch. but... not to lose hope. there are as many people who survive cancer as there are to succumb to it - so there is always hope! my advice to anyone with a family member or friend with cancer, spend all the time you can with them. best of luck, i hope all goes well.
its a hard ride but you and your family stay strong! my aunt just got over breast cancer and when one person in a close family gets cancer so does everyone else, in a way. its tough but we are praying for you and your family, stay strong!
Thank you, prayer is good been doing a lot of that lately as well as spending time with Tony,and my grandson, the kids got a heart of gold and I promised him I'll be here for him,he's feeling bad he cant work and take care of things I just tell him this is what family is for. We hope social security helps him out and been in contact with The American Cancer Society, and other social services,it's hard to watch such a good young man be beaten up by this.
Since he can't work do you think he will qualify for disability....I've seen cases much less needy then his get it....I know there is a lot of paperwork behind it...
I know the Shriner's hospital in Chi town does a lot of work....maybe contact them to see if they know of some options for both you and Tony...
Ill look into that as well as any other agencies or programs that might be willing to help out. And now that you mention Chi-town, thats my home town and if I cant find work locally here I've got good connects and can have a job within a week, but it's about 4 hours away so I would have to stay with family and send money back here to Alton. I'm going to give it a week to find work, and then it's up I-55 to Chi-town..
Hey man, my sincerest of prayers for Tony, yourself, and the family...a time like this is what makes everybody stronger, and with the support you guys can show him, Tony should have the strength to tough this one out...
Thanks man, Im doing my best to show him this is what family is all about you know? His mom and dad hardly even call him,he deserves better than that.
I wish him the best of luck and hope he pulls through. I'm going under the knife at the end of the summer to remove a growth on my thyroid. It's benign (sp?) but there's a very good chance it could become malignant, so I'm not taking any chances.
Thanks I think I'll let him read all the heartfelt posts you guys are putting up, and may you pull thru with your procedure with flying colors, prayers back at cha man
Best wishes. to be somewhat hopefull, my mother had breast cancer and just past her 5yr mark last september. I know its not the same cancer but a survival story is a survival story. Hang in there St. Louis has some of the best hospitals/research in the nation. Your in alton? Do you go to stlmustangs? I thought I saw a post about something like this? Maybe it was another site though???
damn its always sad to hear about other peoples storys. best of luck to your family. most important thing is a positive attitude about 3 years ago now i was diagnosed with AML leukemia. spent 45 days in the hospital the first time diagnosing/recieving chemo that put it into remission. about 6months later they went ahead and did the bone marrow transplant to ensure that the cancer would stay gone. i had the transplant in oct/nov 2004 and so far so good im 22 now and when i first got sick i was going to the gym 3-4 times a week and was in pretty good shape
Yeah Alton, The only time Ive gone to St. Louis is to Barnes Jewish Hospital to see the kid and to take him for chemo treatments, We are impressed with the treatment and the doctors are great, at first they thought it was leaukemia or something with a name similar to what you described, but they confirmed stage 4 lymphoma according to their findings he hardly had any bone marrow, was replaced by cancer cells, he's had about 14 blood transfusions to bring his white cell count uo but only to have the chemo eat them back up , kind of a build and destroy process, over and over.
My prayers go out to Tony and you. It is your faith that can carry you through. God Bless. In Jesus name Amen.
Sorry to hear about all this. Makes it worse that he has a wife and kids and is so young. Hope he makes it through everything ok. And its nce to hear that your so caring that you took them in and are helping them out not many people would do that now days everybodys to selfish. Good luck to all of you.
Our prayers are with you too. Very very sad to hear this news. Damit, you wonder where this crap comes from! At such a young age it makes you think it is in the genetics perhaps and not from the environmental variables beating on your body from day to day.
