Inspirational Stories

In January of 2016, my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). He was unresponsive to treatment. He went into remission, but it quickly came back. The clinic said they couldn’t do anything more, so he was referred to the University of Minnesota for a clinical trial. The treatment included me, as his daughter, donating my T-cells. The clinical trial was helpful but didn’t get the results he needed, and cancer came back.

It was then decided that Dad would be a good candidate for a bone marrow transplant. Because the first donation was partially successful, they chose me as his donor for the transplant. In September of 2018, I donated my bone marrow in the morning, and Dad received the transplant in the evening. 

My part in the NK cell donation took place two weeks before my dad actually received them while they were “cleaned”. I went into the U of M early in the morning, had a very long needle placed into the bend of my arm, and sat for a total of 6 hours. Blood was extracted from my body, separated into the parts and the unusable portion was put back in through my other arm. I was awake for the whole process and it was painless overall, despite my terrible fear of needles. 

When donating my bone marrow, I was asleep for the process and was told it took less than 30 minutes. It was rather painful in my lower back area for about a week but I remained tired for an additional week beyond that. I had a 6-year-old daughter, Mia who was such amazing help with my 1-year-old son, Austin. My husband, Dustin worked nights at the time so I was really counting on help from my daughter. 

There were many complications, but the transplant was successful, and he went into total remission. About a year later, Dad was diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Of course, he beat that too.

My dad was cancer free for about 2 years but unfortunately, this past fall he was diagnosed with (MDS) leukemia. He quickly started a clinical trial that was successful in Europe. His last biopsy showed only 2% of the cancer remained but then he noticed a problem with swallowing food. He then learned his Head & Neck cancer had come back. His leukemia treatment was put on hold and a removal surgery was scheduled. When the removal surgery began, they learned the cancer spread quite a bit and had to stop the surgery to find out what my dad’s wishes were as one option may be removing his voice box. While the doctors looked into treatment options, the leukemia clinical trial treatment began again. This is where we are at today-  Battling 2 cancers and waiting on treatment options. 

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) was a contributor to the clinical trial my dad received. Without LLS, the journey to help my dad wouldn’t have begun.

Written by Cheryl, Don's daughter.