Dear family and friends,
It was 6 years ago in September that cancer picked our family to screw with.
It wasn't going to go easy on us. It hit Dave with a cancer we never heard of, multiple myeloma.
It gave Dave the latest stage of the disease, Stage III and added "high-risk" to his "poor" prognosis.
By the end of the first round, Dave was covered with lesions on his scull, legs, ribs, and arms and 90% of his healthy blood cells were pushed out and replaced with the cancerous "multiple myeloma" cell.
In an attempt at a KO, Dave went into kidney failure and came very close to losing his life. That is how advanced he was when we found out.
Dave got right in there and fought back, going into stringent complete response after multiple rounds of a threesome of chemo called RVD. To ensure a beat down happened, he successfully went through a stem cell transplant, securing he was the champ.
A year later he found out the he had a secondary cancer, parotid cancer, and had to have a very difficult surgery and rounds of radiation before he became cancer-free again.
He beat down two cancers!!
During this entire time, Dave was heavily on pain medications to control the terrible peripheral neuropathy he suffered from one of the chemos.
He had 3 years of no cancer, but cancer had been training and insisted on a rematch. The cancer was coming back and this time it was determined to win.
Dave put on his gloves, got in the ring, and did his best to contain cancer's aggression. But, Dave's body had been through so much from the first fight that he was having a difficult time dodging the hits.
My mom and I sat on the sidelines cheering him on. Fight Dave!! Fight!!
By the final round, we could tell Dave was tired. The chemo wasn't working and he was spending most of his days getting chemo, platelets, red blood cells, and fluids. He doesn't want to go to the hospital anymore. He was getting sicker and sicker and we new he couldn't take many more hits.
Last night, my mom and Dave called me over to let me know that he was done. He could no longer fight. He was throwing in the towel.
And before cancer could make the decision for him and strip him of what time he has left at home, it was decided to forego anymore treatments.
I laid in him arms and we cried as my mom watched on, tears staining her cheeks. The three of us were in it together from day one. And we will be in it together as we enter the next phase.
Our number one goal is to make sure he is not in pain and has some peace. Dave' s oncologist is setting Dave up with everything he needs from medicale bed to palliative care.
If you want to visit, I'd just try and stop by for a short time. He is mobile and enjoys sitting in the media room or the room by the kitchen. Its difficult for him to talk, but just sitting with him and talking about memories or listening to some music, which he loves would be comforting.
Hugs.
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