[Dan92]

Hi, my dad passed away January 3rd, 2016. It's still so crazy and so hard. He was only 52. I wanted to just go through his story.
He was diagnosed with AML in November of 2012. He went through 2 rounds of chemo and still did not go into remmision so he needed a BMT. He had an unrelated 10/10 match BMT in March of 2013. He was in the hospital for 8 weeks and it took him over a year to really leave the house, aside from going to the hospital. He got himself back into shape and really looked great. You would never know he was sick. After almost 2 and half years in remission, we found out he relapsed over the summer. We went through our options and met with many doctors. Once the cancer came back it moved quickly. He needed a second BMT. We used a different donor for the simple reason that the first on didn't work (that is our only regret now, maybe we should of used the original donor). He checked back into the hospital at the end of Septmeber for 3 weeks of Chemo and then he was home for 3 weeks and then back to the hospital for his 2nd unrelated 10/10 BMT. He had it done on November 11th, 2015. He was doing well for 2 weeks. Then he started having really bad diarrhea. They gave him steroids, but they didn't work. As some of you know if the steroids don't work, there is less than a 10% chance of survival. On December 1st we found out it was stage 4. They tried another medication and then photopheresis. He fought off pneumonia and a couple infections. Then all those liters of diarrhea turned into blood. The GVHD of the gut wore away at the tissue of his bowel which caused really bad bleeding. There was no way to stop the bleeding. We just had to pray it would stop some how, but we knew we were at the end. They told us he could die at any moment. That happened on a Friday night. Almost a week later on Thursday his breathing started to get really bad. The doctors took me and my family outside the room and told us he had started the dying process. This was very strange to us because my dad was speaking to us the day before. After weeks of almost eating nothing and saying nothing he had started speaking in full sentences. He asked for my mom and me and all my siblings. We each spoke to him and he told us that he loved us. It was some kind of surge of energy. In our minds we convinced ourselves that he was getting better. That's why his breathing getting worse was an even greater shock.
He didn't look like himself. He bad tubes everywhere, an oxygen mask, the inside of his mouth was black and falling apart. His body was destroying itself from the inside.
He made it until Sunday, when he passed away around noon.
It's such a shock, but it helps me to hear other people's stories who went through similar situations. I helped take care of my dad for the last 3 years. I learned a lot about this horrible disease and talking about it makes me feel like I'm still fighting for him.