David and the dum-dum cancer

 Hi everyone,

We’re going to start David’s cancer updates and progress here, so bookmark this page/set up your RSS feed (if that’s even a thing) for all the latest news as David starts his battle. David is still happy to have you reach out as he’s enjoying connecting with others *and* that might change as things go. For reference this is Vanessa writing and proofreading is not a guarantee 😅 

The Story So Far

David had been having some chest pain and given that he has a long family history of heart disease knew that he needed to meet with a doctor. Thankfully we learned about an easy to get into family doctor earlier this year so David set it up. The doctor had him do some blood work and ticked a box that asked the lab to both count the  white blood cells and look at them under the microscope. We don’t know why. The doctor is a bit dotty and we’re glad because it’s what caught things earlier than it would have otherwise. That test was at 5:30pm on Tuesday, July 29. 

The next morning on Wednesday, July 30, the doctor called David to let him know that the lab identified some blast cells in his bloodwork and that would be a positive indicator of leukemia. I joined him at the Kaye Edmonton Clinic and we had David do more blood work. The doctor had him start on some medication the next day to slow down his blood production. We also learned that David likely has acute myeloid leukemia. David then had an appointment scheduled with the doctor (hematologist Dr. Wynick) for Thursday for a bone marrow biopsy and more blood work. 

The bone biopsy went well (though David has very strong bones and made Dr Wynick work hard) on Thursday and the blood test from yesterday confirmed that he has acute leukemia. The bone marrow biopsy will confirm the type but very most likely is acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This is a very aggressive cancer and if he had no treatment he would not make it to Halloween. Thankfully there is treatment!

Up next over the next 5 days David is taking a medication at home (hydroxurea) to slow the production/ destroy white blood cells. He is also taking a second medication to keep his blood from getting to toxic that it impacts his liver and kidneys. 

On Wednesday he meets with the senior hematologist who will confirm what subtype of AML he has and confirm that he will start chemo. He will then be admitted shortly after that (possibly the same day) to start in-patient chemotherapy at the u of a hospital. He will be there for about a month and it will be the full meal chemotherapy (he will be in rough shape). The goal is to kill all the cancer into he bone marrow. They are treating to cure. After he will do some outpatient treatment and they will do another bone marrow biopsy to confirm. He will likely need a second in-patient chemotherapy for month after, but they do give 3 months in between for him to recover and build his strength. After that, another biopsy. If it’s good yay!! It’s in remission. If not, they will look at stem cell transplants. 

The next 6 months will be quite intense. And no travel for David for a year.

Lots to process but your prayers and love are appreciated. We know this is hard for everyone who loves David. 

Now that we know, David is okay if you tell others. And I’m sure when he is in the hospital he will appreciate visitors (no pets or flowers permitted). It is really important that David does not get colds or flus so we are going to be particular about that. 

Love you all and please ask what we questions you have.