Isaiah Fights ALL Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

10/24/2023

Final lumbar puncture with chemo was this afternoon!! That makes 12 that he’s had. I know he’s not going to miss doing those. Thursday he goes for a CT head scan, then a bone marrow biopsy, then he will be admitted to the hospital that same day, for the next 19 days. He should be released from the hospital on Nov 14th, then we will stay here close to the hospital, for 2 weeks. He will go back on the 28th for another bone marrow biopsy and, we should be able to head home on the 29th, with a follow up in a month and if it’s all good, we should be good for 2 to 3 months. We are finally nearing the end of this long journey!

10/18/2023

Guess who got the chemo pump removed for THE LAST TIME?!?!?

He will still have 2 Lumbar Punctures with chemo and 3 days of chemo when he starts the CAR T process on the 26th, but the 6 cycles of chemo he had to do here (plus the 2 cycles in BR)are finished!! He’s a happy kiddo!!

10/07/2023

Isaiah had a regular bloodwork visit scheduled yesterday & he was supposed to get a lumber puncture but his platelets were too low, so they planned on platelets instead. His liver enzymes are also a little high which could be from the antifungal he’s on so they are taking him off of that one and putting him on one that he will take by IV daily, it’s just as effective, but without the side effects of the other one, but it means a daily visit to the clinic. He woke up with an annoying little cough, so I asked them to swab him while he was there & guess what??? He’s got Covid 😩 they had me bring him straight to the ER because his WBC is too low to be where he’s not being monitored. I’m so thankful they did that swab!! He & Doug have been in the ER since 6pm isolated and waiting on a room in the actual hospital. I will not be able to visit since I’ve been exposed to him, but hopefully they will get him out of there soon. He said he feels great, it just feels like sinus stuff again.

And…
In other Isaiah news!! He will be starting the CAR T process a week early. He will be admitted to the hospital on Oct 26 just admission that day, then chemo 27,28,29. Then a day of rest on the 30th & on the 31st his cells will go back in on the 13th or 14th he will be released from the hospital and if all goes well, we will be free to come home by the 28th or 29th of Nov!! After that he will come back in Dec for a follow up and then every 3 months after that.

09/27/2023

Here is the latest info we have on Isaiah & his progress.

We finally got the info on the 2 million cell bone marrow biopsy from August. His cancer cell count had gone up from the 5 cells they saw in the July biopsy to 53 cells in August. They have done another this month so we are waiting on those results. The Dr said it could be from some of the medication, so they will know more when the Sept results are back in, overall he wasn’t concerned about that as 53 is still a low number. He said all of his other counts are excellent too so that’s great news.

He was admitted yesterday for his 6th and final round of chemo in TX (he had 2 complete rounds of it in BR as well) & he will get two more lumbar punctures with preventive chemo this cycle as well.

Once this cycle is complete he will get a week of rest and then on Nov 2nd his CAR T process whe will be in the hospital 19 days & then 14 close by after. They only admit people for CAR T on Thursdays because of lab stuff, that has to be done & the lab is closed on Sat & Sun.

So here is how the CAR T process works… he will go into the hospital on Nov 2 to start the admission process. Day 1 is strictly getting settled in then days 2, 3 & 4 will be chemo & day 5 is a day of rest and then on day 6th (Nov 7th) he will have the cells infused back into his body, through his PICC line. Nov 7-21 he stays in the hospital to watch for any possible side effects. Nov 22- Dec 5th he stays close to the hospital (my plan is to stay at The Drury Inn Galleria because it’s close by & I will be staying there from Nov 1st anyway) incase he has any side effects, then we FINALLY get go home on Dec 6th!! He will go back in Jan for a bone marrow biopsy & follow up then he will start his every 3 months, which will lead to every 6 months and ideally it will be every year.

If anyone wants to donate toward the hotel fund I’m attaching the fundraiser link. We will be staying at the hotel from Nov 1 to Dec 6th. It ended up being less expensive than trying to rent another apt for the final month & I don’t feel safe to be in the apt we are in now alone for the amount of time I will be by myself during his CAR T treatment.

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09/24/2023

I haven’t really said anything about what has happened in the past month because it’s been so stressful for me, but here goes…

The guy (Jean) I was leasing from on Airbnb told me that I could lease directly from him for $4500 per month and not pay the service fees which would save me a little over $1000 a month. So needing to save as much as possible, I agreed to it.

I met him in the lobby of the complex we were in and gave him $4500 cash. I had to practically force him to hand write a receipt for me & then had to make him sign it… yes I should have had my radar up, but I was tired and mentally exhausted. So once August was taken care of (in July) he starts pressing me to pay him for Sept & Oct so he can “block the dates out” I felt a little weird about it, but I brushed that off and paid him the $9000 over Venmo and Cash App. Well a few days later I had to come to BR and Isaiah called and said a deputy had been at the apt with eviction papers for Jean… turns out, I was subleasing without my knowledge & he didn’t pay the complex. I called him immediately and he said oh it’s a mistake, I called the complex and I wasn’t listed as an occupant so they couldn’t tell me anything. I ended up attending the eviction hearing via Zoom and Jean, didn’t show up, so it was an automatic judgement against him. I could prove that I had paid so the Judge told the complex they would have to go thru the process to evict me & I didn’t want to fool with that. So knowing I wasn’t going to get my money back from Jean, I had to move into another complex that he’s got apts in. It cost me $650 to move because he told me he would get people to move us, then didn’t so I had to scramble to get everything we had from the 5 months we’ve been there, packed and ready for someone to pick up and deliver to the new place. Well… the new place isn’t nearly as nice and I don’t even feel safe walking from my car to the apt alone when Isaiah is in the hospital. So I’m bringing Doug & Isaiah back to TX tomorrow and I’m going to load up more stuff to bring back to BR when he goes back in the hosp Tues for a few days for his last round of chemo, then go back Sun to stay & pack up some more. We have this apt until Oct 31 and then I’ll move into a hotel for the 2 weeks I’m alone & will probably upgrade to a 1 bdrm & stay there the final 2 weeks of Nov when he’s out of the hospital after his CAR T procedure as well.

Isaiah is doing really well, he still gets tired fairly easy and he HATES being in the hospital, so he gets cranky lol. I told him he’s really going to have to mentally prepare for the 2 week stay. It’s been a while since he’s had to stay that long at one time. Tues will be the start his final chemo treatment, that will last for 4 weeks. We are looking forward to the end of chemo and then once the chemo is out of his system, he will start the CAR T process, most likely around Oct 26th or 27th. We are finally seeing light at the end of this long tunnel we’ve been in! We are so appreciative of all of your love, prayers and kindness that you have shown us throughout all of this. There are no words to express how much it means to us.

07/19/2023

LONG UPDATE POST

We went to the Dr yesterday and he said that Isaiah is responding really well to the treatment. They did a test of 10 million cells and in those 10 million only 5 were cancer, so he is still in remission. The rest of the news is, we will have to be here another 4 to 5 months. So late Nov or late Dec, before we can come home. I’m not sure how the miscommunication happened, but I think maybe we were counting the 2 treatments he had in BR and those don’t count. So he still has 3 chemo cycles left and 6 lumbar punctures. Each cycle takes a month and then he said to plan for 2 months for the CarT treatment. It’s disappointing of course, because we thought we would be home by now and we definitely didn’t budget for a full 8 months away from home, so we are scrambling to figure out what we can do. We for sure want to do what is best for him and make sure this never comes back, so we will do what we need to do.

The man we are renting from offered to rent to us directly from him for $4500 a month, which is much better than the $6000 that we were paying through Airbnb these past 3 months. And is only about $900 more a month than the complex charges for direct rental. That would also require furniture, TVs, utilities and deposits for the unit and the utilities, so staying where we are is the best option. So if anyone has a spare $22,500 lying around or you hit those lottery numbers, you know where to send it lol

Just a note:
I have applied for the places that are offered through Churches and other organizations and only one got back to me. The issue is, they only allow you to stay a maximum of 3 months, so having to move into a place that would only allow him and 1 of us as a caregiver, and then have to search for somewhere for the last 2 months when his immune system will be so compromised, really isn’t an option at this time. I’m sure that it will all work out, but until then it’s going to be super stressful, so send some prayers our way. We would seriously appreciate them.

07/12/2023

#34 Missy Brown WINNER!!

CHOOSE YOUR NUMBER TODAY!!
You have a chance to win these BEAUTIFUL AUTHENTIC POLARIZED CHANEL SUNGLASSES

All proceeds will go towards housing and expenses for 2019 CHS graduate Isaiah Andries while he is getting treatment for Leukemia at MD Anderson in Houston.

1, 3, 5,7, 8,11,12,13,14, 18,21, 25,27, 33, 41,44, 50 are taken! Grab your chance TODAY!!

Brand new and just released for the summer of 2023

They retail for $525 and come with a gorgeous case, box and bag!

You can donate for a chance to win them 1 chance for $20 or 2 chances for $35 (3 for $55/ 4 for $70 etc)

They will make a fantastic gift for yourself or someone else.

Choose a number between 1 and 50 and as soon as we fill the board up we will draw a number. See the photos to see what numbers are available and I will update the photo each time a number is taken.

You can send the money via any of apps below and post on here or send me the numbers that you choose at Isaiahfightsall@gmail.com

Venmo -Andries
PayPal
CashApp $AngelaSumner1220

07/12/2023

CHOOSE YOUR NUMBER TODAY!!
You have a chance to win these

BEAUTIFUL AUTHENTIC POLARIZED CHANEL SUNGLASSES (donated to us by a very reputable eyewear business) These are not knockoffs!

All proceeds will go towards housing and expenses for Isaiah Andries while he is getting treatment for Leukemia at MD Anderson in Houston.

Brand new and just released for the summer of 2023

They retail for $525 and come with a gorgeous case, box and bag!

You can donate for a chance to win them 1 chance for $20 or 2 chances for $35 (3 for $55/ 4 for $70 etc)

They will make a fantastic gift for yourself or someone else.

Choose a number between 1 and 50 and as soon as we fill the board up we will draw a number. See the photos to see what numbers are available and I will update the photo each time a number is taken. Right now, 3, 7, 12,14, 21, 27, 33, 44 are taken.

You can send the money via any of apps below and post on here or send me the numbers that you choose at Isaiahfightsall@gmail.com

Venmo -Andries
PayPal
CashApp $AngelaSumner1220

06/17/2023

UPDATE POSTED IN FUNDRAISER LINK

See Fundraiser in comments, please share the fundraiser if you are able to. He has a long journey ahead and we have had to move from Louisiana to Texas while he is in treatment, which means no income, so he can be cared for.

With a longer stay means more funds are needed. If you have a need for screen printing, logo design, banners or any print work, reach out please. If you can donate, any and every little bit will help. It cost money to park even in the parking garage ($20 a day) and it all adds up quickly. Everyone has been so incredible and we are so sorry to have to even ask for more help, but here we are having to ask. The housing alone is $5800 a month and he might have another two months stay. Again, thank you to every single person who has reached out and helped or prayed or even thought about him and our family through all of this 🥹❤️ Margo

06/14/2023

Ok now that most everything has settled down somewhat, I want to thank everyone for the prayers yesterday. They were answered & we are so thankful!! As I said before, we brought Isaiah back to the ER Monday morning & he was admitted that night. Everything was ok except his head was still hurting. So they started him on dilaudid every 4 hours & he was finally getting some rest. Tuesday morning he woke up & was talking to Doug and told him he had slept well, then all of the sudden at about 8:30am he started not making any sense. He didn’t know who he was or who Doug was. I was on the phone with Doug getting the list of things they needed from the apt & he couldn’t get him to say anything other than OK over and over. When I got to the hospital he was agitated & didn’t know where he was by that point. They stopped all meds including his chemo & did a CT they found a few small bleeds in his brain on the left side and the gray and white brain matter was what they described as “blurred”. They had done an MRI Monday night and a CT on Thurs and none of that was there at the time. He got a lot worse, before he got better. He had no motor skills, couldn’t follow commands & was too weak to stand. At about 4:30 he was finally settling down & was able to sleep some & by 7:30 he was mostly back to himself, he knew the name of the hospital & all of the questions he was asked. They did another CT last night & the brain bleeds were gone (answered prayers) He’s in ICU right now, but they should be moving him back to the leukemia floor sometime today & will do another MRI tonight, just to check things out again. He will restart his chemo tomorrow, so hopefully he will be fully back on track by tomorrow. The Drs have decided that the combination of the pain meds with the chemo he was on had done all of these things to him, now that the meds are clearing out of his system he is much better and we are all breathing a sigh of relief.

06/08/2023

Yesterday he got more platelets and 2 types of chemo, along with a bunch of premeds, so he’s going to be groggy when we leave here this evening, but hopefully the platelets will give him a boost of energy.

06/06/2023

Yesterday Isaiah got a unit of platelets, his had dropped from 159 to 15, so he had to have them before he could get his lumbar puncture with his dose of chemo. They also changed his chemo bag while we were there. He had been given a dose of versed for the LP so he came back to the apt and slept. He certainly feels better when he’s at the apt and can get rest when he needs it.

05/26/2023

Now I will start on his latest journey. He was apparently misdiagnosed twice and in this stage we will finally get some answers.

05/26/2023

On February 1, 2023 Isaiah had an appointment at his oncologists office, for routine lab work. When we left, I didn’t like the way he was breathing, so I took him to the ER. While we were sitting in the ER waiting to see the Dr, his oncologist called and said his White Blood Count was too high, so something was going on and he wanted me to get him to the hospital right away. I told him that we were already in the ER, so he called and had him admitted. I called Isaiahs dad, who was living in Colorado and he flew in that night around midnight. The Dr suspected he had leukemia, but needed a bone marrow biopsy to confirm. Once they did that we found out that it was in fact acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

05/26/2023

So just when we felt like we were in the clear. He started having pain in one shoulder. The ER diagonoised him with tendonitis December 23, 2022. His numbers were still good so no suspicion was raised. His pain spread to both arms in January, so he went to an Ortho Dr and was given more anti-inflammatory meds and we even tried K-Tape, but he wasn’t getting any relief.

Send a message to learn more

05/26/2023

I am going to start with October 2021. Isaiah had been training for his new job with AT&T in Houston. When he came home, he was exhausted. His dad took him to urgent care two different times and they were told that it was left over Covid. We were treating him like he had a cold and he just wasn’t getting better. He went to work his first day and his boss sent him home. By that evening he had a fever and we couldn’t get it to go down, so I called his dad and we took him to the ER.

I’ll post screenshots from from that time here.

05/25/2023

Hi! I decided that we would make a page so that everyone can just go to one place to see what is happening. Give me a little time to get the page together, because I’m going to go all the way back to October 2021 when we first started this fight believing we were dealing with HLH, so it will take a little time to gather everything.