Just a quick note in memory of Luke and Bucky who both passed away this week. Bucky passed away early Wednesday morning and Luke passed away early this morning.
Luke was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma in July 2007 and treated. He went into remission until October 15th 2008; he relapsed, once again it was T-Cell Leukemia.
Luke received a bone marrow transplant in January of 2009.
Early last week, the day before Luke was to be released from the hospital, in the middle of the night Luke had a seizure. The doctors quickly gave him a CT scan and lesions were present on his brain. A brain biopsy would be extremely risky for Luke because of how weak he was. The lesions appeared worse on the second CT scan and were also present in his lungs.
The doctors decided the safest way to go was to have a biopsy on one of the lesions in his lung. The results came back this past Thursday, Aspergillus. This is a fungus that is very common it is found everywhere even in the dust in the air. The only problem was that because Luke's immune system was so low he has no way to fight the fungus. This fungus spread faster than the meds were able to work. The last CT scan showed a fluid build up on his brain. This fungus was what resulted in his passing. Luke was 17 years old.
Here are some pictures of I have of Luke:
Luke was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma in July 2007 and treated. He went into remission until October 15th 2008; he relapsed, once again it was T-Cell Leukemia.
Luke received a bone marrow transplant in January of 2009.
Early last week, the day before Luke was to be released from the hospital, in the middle of the night Luke had a seizure. The doctors quickly gave him a CT scan and lesions were present on his brain. A brain biopsy would be extremely risky for Luke because of how weak he was. The lesions appeared worse on the second CT scan and were also present in his lungs.
The doctors decided the safest way to go was to have a biopsy on one of the lesions in his lung. The results came back this past Thursday, Aspergillus. This is a fungus that is very common it is found everywhere even in the dust in the air. The only problem was that because Luke's immune system was so low he has no way to fight the fungus. This fungus spread faster than the meds were able to work. The last CT scan showed a fluid build up on his brain. This fungus was what resulted in his passing. Luke was 17 years old.
Here are some pictures of I have of Luke:
This is Luke and his Mother, Sandra
Luke participating in a cancer survivor walk in November, 2008
This is Luke's sister-in-law, niece and brother, Andy. Andy and I grew up together. The kind of growing up together where our parents have embarrassing photos of us taking baths together and a close up picture of me laying a big ol kiss on him.
I hope heaven has lots of great fishing and hunting spots for ya! Much love!
___________________
Bucky and I spoke a few weeks ago on the phone and he said he hadn't been feeling well for the last few weeks. While I was on vacation, Bucky called Joe (boss man) to let him know he was going to have some heart surgery. Bucky went in to have a heart valve replaced last week, but after they went in they discovered that he had heart cancer. I have personally never heard of cancer of the heart, however, they closed him up and informed him and his family that he had only about a week to live. I can't even wrap my mind around how devastating this has got to be for his family.
Rest in Peace, Bucky
