How we got here....a little back story. Welcome to our journey. Yes, it is our journey because although I am the one being treated, Kellee, Luckee, Journee along with family and friends are all affected. By joining this page I would like to thank you for your support of me, Kellee, and the boys in advance. For those that do not know the full story I will give you a quick run down below. The journey started in mid-April 2024 when I felt a small lump on my abdomen. I knew I had to make an appointment to have it looked at. Before I continue, I felt a lump in this same general location about two years prior and had an ultrasound on it. I then had a follow-up ultrasound about a month later, which showed it had reduced in size, and I just needed to see doctors if it had changed. I never felt it or had it bother me until April 2024. Doctors do not believe it is the same exact spot but cannot say for sure. I scheduled an appointment with my primary care doctor, who referred me for an ultrasound of the lump. I received the results in mid-May that stated I needed to have an MRI with contrast done for further evaluation. I scheduled the MRI with what was available which was a few weeks away. When I told the doctor the date, she said to call back because she had entered the referral as urgent. I changed the date again and the doctor said that was not soon enough even though it was only 5 days away. She then submitted the MRI referral to a different radiology clinic. The new radiology clinic called to schedule my appointment the day after Memorial Day weekend and got me in that same day. I knew my doctor did not like what the ultrasound showed when she did not even want me to wait 5 days for the MRI that was scheduled. I received those results by the time I got home from the appointment, and they stated I needed a CT scan, PET scan, and biopsy. I had my biopsy completed on June 12th and had to fight with insurance for my CT and PET scans. On June 17th I received the biopsy result and was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). On June 24th, I received the final biopsy report that included some testing that takes longer, and it determined I had double aggressor diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a more aggressive form of the cancer. With the biopsy result, I was finally approved by insurance for the PET scan and had that on June 21st. In addition to the lump on my abdomen that had grown to be visible through clothes, I also had three additional spots on my interior. Many people asked if I could feel them, and besides the one that was on my abdomen, I could not. Once I had been diagnosed with DLBCL I started to research it. I found videos providing and overview of it on the Lymphoma Research Foundation website. Part of the video spoke of symptoms you may have, and two listed were night sweats and chills. Both I had a couple of weeks prior but never thought much of it, and they went away. Another point they made was that although this is an aggressive cancer and no one wants cancer, it is a cancer that is highly treatable and curable. After diagnosis and PET scan, I met with Virginia Mason, Fred Hutch, and Mayo Clinic Arizona oncology departments. Kellee and I traveled to Arizona to meet with Dr. Rosenthal, head of oncology at the Mayo Clinic AZ, which specializes in lymphoma, on June 26th. She was great and thoroughly went through everything, including the PET scan slide by slide. She ultimately agreed with the treatment plan of Fred Hutch and did not feel the need for me to travel to their location, but she kept the communication line open so that I could ask any questions. I feel very grateful for the opportunity to meet with Dr. Rosenthal and continue to have her as a resource along with my team at Fred Hutch. My Fred Hutch oncologist determined that POLA-R-CHP would be the best chemotherapy treatment for DLBCL and would have a good long-term response. My chemo regimen would be six treatments every three weeks. My first chemo treatment was on July 10th and lasted about 8 hours. The day prior to each treatment, you have blood drawn to make sure your blood counts, etc, are within range to receive treatment. I had to push my second treatment about a week and a half due to my white blood count and neutrophils being severely low. What that meant was I was neutropenic and could not eat any fresh fruits or vegetables. Everything had to be cooked, and I had to be extremely careful around people because I did not have an immune system. This happened right before our trip to Lake Osoyoos. We still traveled but took extra precautions to keep me safe. Due to my white blood count and neutrophils going so low, the doctors decided to reduce my chemo dosage to 80% with the goal to not have my body respond that way again. I had treatments two and three, both at 80%. After treatment three, I had my blood drawn before treatment 4 but had to push it back because my numbers were too low again. We tested a couple of times, and my numbers were not where they needed. That meant the long-acting booster shot to help me keep my white blood count and neutrophil numbers within range was not working. The doctors switched me to daily shots, and I went into the clinic at Fred Hutch at EvergreenHealth daily. Thankfully, we live only a mile away, making them quick visits. This pushed treatment number four two weeks, so it was 5 weeks between treatment 3 and 4. After treatment three, I received a halfway PET Scan that showed my original spots had reduced significantly but had two new spots. Not what we wanted but we were hopeful the remaining chemo treatments would knock out the new spots. I continued with the daily booster shots after treatment four and that did the trick to keep my blood count numbers where they wanted them. Because I could manage my numbers, they increased my chemo dosage back to 100% woo hoo. Once insurance finally approved my prescription, I could give the daily booster shots at home. Luckee was my assistant and would help me with “1, 2, 3, poke”. My final chemo treatment was on November 19th. The nurses who provided all the care at the infusion clinic were amazing. They help make a terrible thing tolerable and can bring a smile to your face. I must also acknowledge Kellee sitting by my side during each treatment which was about 4.5 hours for treatments 2 through 6. It was also great to have my mom and other visitors make appearances. I was able to ring the bell for completing chemo treatment with my nurse team on November 19th. The goal was to ring the bell again after my final PET scan that would show the chemo had knocked out all my cancer. Unfortunately, that was not the case and I still had three small spots. Two of the spots were ones that showed on the halfway PET scan and the other was new. My oncologist explained that the good news was that the remaining spots were small but may be hard to biopsy to confirm that they are still dealing with DLBCL. She also informed me that she would be referring me to the main Fred Hutch campus in South Lake Union to meet with the Lymphoma specialists and immunotherapy department to discuss CAR T Therapy as a second-line treatment. CAR T therapy is a very specialized procedure that entails extracting T cells from my blood, modifying those T cells to attack specific things, multiplying them, killing off my remaining T cells, and then infusing them back into my body to attack the cancer. We met with the Lymphoma specialist who deals with complex cases like mine on January 9th. In addition to the CAR T therapy, I am currently planning to participate in a clinical trial that adds another drug, acalabrutinib, that they have reason to believe increases the efficacy of the CAR T treatment. We will meet with the Fred Hutch Immunotherapy team to discuss the CAR T process January 22nd. Thank you for reading my very long write-up on how we got to where we are today, January 14th. You can follow along the journey in real-time above in the “Updates” section.