Nice Tri

Len

Len is my friend Stephanie's best friend's husband. Here is his story.

Len was a third-year law student, about to take his 1st semester exams, when all of a sudden he developed a pain in his side (which he thought was from lifting a bag of heavy kitty litter!) and some blurring in one of his eyes. He thought that the problem with his eye was that his glasses prescription was too weak, so he went to LensCrafters to see the optometrist. She was concerned and advised him to go see his doctor, who in turn, did some tests and discovered that Len had CML (chronic myelogenous leukemia).

Luckily for Len, his father is a prominent doctor in Knoxville, so he immediately had access to great care. He was started on Gleevec, which is a relatively new drug that has shown good short-term results; however, given it's recent introduction to the market, there is little evidence as to whether it provides any long-term benefit. Anyway, his doctors advised that a bone marrow transplant was the best course of action, so he got on the list to get matched with a donor. Eventually, one was found, and he and Janna went out to Seattle, which is home to one of the best bone marrow transplant facilities in the country. (They have a 75% success rate, versus other hospitals, which average around 30%.)

He got the bone marrow transplant and spent about six months in Seattle getting additional treatment. Finally, in September 2002, he came back to Knoxville. He was declared officially in remission and was able to restart law school in Spring 2003. However, in May, he went in for a routine blood test, and the doctors discovered that the cancer was back, this time in the form of AML (acute myelogenous leukemia). He restarted chemo, was doing okay and was about to be released from the hospital, but then developed this awful fungal infection that left him in a wheelchair and covered with horrible sores.

In May, he went out to Seattle again to see his transplant doctors, to see if a second bone marrow transplant could be done. However, given the state of his immune system, the doctors there said that there was nothing more to be done, and told him that he only had one to two months to live. He is now back in Knoxville, in the hospital. He got one more round of chemo, and everyone is waiting to see if his blast cells can be kept at bay long enough to give him a retransfusion of donor bone marrow cells at Vanderbilt Hospital.

All through this, he and Janna have been so amazingly upbeat and positive. Of course, there have been really low times for both of them, but in general, they are an incredible testament to the power of optimism and hope in these sort of devastating situations.

posted by Gillian @ 11:39 AM