Brian’s Blog was created for all of his friends, family, fans, and community members who are cheering him on in his fight against leukemia. Brian graduated from HHS in May of this year. Many people know Brian due to his leadership, sportsmanship, and outstanding athletic achievements including three state championships in wrestling, a state football championship, state discus champion 2011 and varsity track and soccer teams. He had received a call to serve a full-time mission to Uruguay and was planning to start his mission at the end of the month. After completing his mission to Uruguay, Brian planned to play football at SUU where he has already received a full-ride scholarship. Brian was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) on Tuesday October 2nd. That very day he was taken to Salt Lake City for intensive inpatient care. He has been receiving chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and other treatments. We hope and pray that Brian will recover with the help of competent medical care. Doctors say that there is an 80% chance that Brian’s cancer will respond favorably to treatment. Thank you so much for your support. We will keep you updated regularly on Brian’s progress.
Update: On January 14, 2014, Brian passed away after a 15 1/2 month battle with leukemia. He was in remission following the first series of chemotherapy treatments for only 3 months, in spite of earlier optimism. Another harder hitting chemotherapy began in June with the intention of following with a bone marrow transplant but instead, alternative treatments in Colorado Springs and later Atlanta were chosen. Those also were unsuccessful, too little too late. In November he underwent yet more chemotherapy in Denver. The leukemia did not respond. Brian returned home to Southern Utah friends and family on December 12, 2013. Leukemia took his mortal life, but it can't touch his spirit.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Good News

Yesterday we got the pathology report, and the leukemia is still AML. This means that the surviving cancer cells that have come back have not mutated during the previous chemotherapies. If it had, it would have been tougher to get rid of. The second thing we learned is that the current chemo is working very well. Whereas Monday's labs showed 67% cancer cells (blasts) in the white blood cells, today's labs showed only 7%, Last night was the 5th and final chemo for a while, and considering it targets the bone marrow first, and those percentages, the outlook is very good.  Brian still was not eating for the most part, but managed a little Boost and a few strawberries.  He was guarding the edge of nausea much of the day and night. Considering what he just went through, I think he did a super great job! He slept through the night as well as one can with all the interruptions, and maybe by tomorrow he'll dare to try eating a little more. Yesterday 4 football players from the Utah Blaze paid Brian a visit and that was nice. He enjoyed talking a little football with them. Randy and Dennis are heading up this morning, so that will be fun, too. Thanks for checking up on Brian!
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)