COVID-19

I was alone with my doctor in the hospital when she told me I had no bone marrow matches in the world. I cried a lot that day. I was admitted two weeks prior, after relapsing from acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive blood cancer. As a husband, father and criminal prosecutor, I’ve dedicated my life to caring for my loved ones and protecting my community.

My personal story with blood cancer started in 2020 but nobody really knew how long it was brewing. A day came when back spasms started raging and my Primary Care Physician (PCP) sent me to physical therapy (PT). It didn’t take more than 1 visit to PT to know that was a bust and finally my PCP sent me to the Hematologist.

In October of 2020, I became sick with a sinus infection. After a 10-day dose of antibiotics, I was still sick, and the doctor gave me a stronger dose of antibiotics. Once I finished the five-day dose, I felt better, but every day I had a headache. After 28 days of continuous headaches, I decided to call the doctor again and let him know.

At age 69, I was diagnosed with stage IIIA nodal marginal zone lymphoma (NMZL) following a neck lymph node biopsy, PET scan, and a bone marrow biopsy. It’s a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). I had enlarged lymph nodes in my neck, axilla bilaterally, and groin bilaterally. However, the bone marrow biopsy showed no lymph node enlargement.

On October 3, 2019, I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) at the age of 58. I was asymptomatic, so I was in total denial that I had leukemia. I had just attended my 40th high school reunion, and I thought my health was great. After leaving the oncologist's office that day, I went home and discovered that I had blood in my urine, or was it post-menopausal bleeding?

The year 2021 was quite a year for us. It was the year of cancer. No one ever really prepares themselves for the diagnosis of cancer, and when you're told you have it, the emotional roller coaster you are about to embark on cannot ever be fully described in words. The fear, the exhaustion, the financial burden, the feeling of helplessness you experience is completely terrifying.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) in December 2020, but at the time, it was considered to be "indolent." That quickly changed in late February 2021 when I experienced intussusception, a painful telescoping of the bowel into itself requiring hospitalization. A colonoscopy revealed a 7 cm. mass of the cecum, and the biopsy showed that it was MCL.