Jerry's Medical Fund
Donation protected
Hi Everyone,
A lot of you who are going to read this know our story, for those of you who do not read along and please stick around for updates about how Jerry is doing.
Jerry is a twenty four year old, inner city school teacher here in Baltimore. In his off time he likes to play rugby, is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins for educational leadership, and the man I'm planning to marry in 2016. This past fall Jerry believed he hurt his back during a rugby game. As stubborn as he is he went to a chiropractor and physical theropy to aid him in getting better. There was some progress and we though his lower back pains were going away.
Bringing in 2015, Jerry was tired almost all of the time. I thought that something else had been going on that had him in some sort of funk. I insisted that he get checked out by a primary care doctor, but he could never seem to get an appointment that would work around his teaching and class schedule. We thought he had gotten sick from his student and tried to nurse everything back to normal yet nothing seemed to be working.
In late April, Jerry had been sleeping a lot more than normal. Night sweats and constant shivers kept him up at times, I began to thing that he had come down with a phenomena. His parents were in town for a visit and insisted that he see a doctor because he looked ill. A few days after they left he took himself to an Urgent Care after work. The Urgent Care did a blood test finding that he was anemic. They told him that he had to get to an emergency room and were going to call an ambulance. In his typical stubborn fashion he refused to be driven in the ambulance.
When he arrived at Howard County General, they rushed him into a room becasue his iron levels were so low. After two very long days and many tests we were given the answer to what has been going on. On May 2nd, Jerry was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin's Lymphoma. At that point they found that it had spread to his liver, spleen, and possibly into his bone marrow. His doctor had told us that if he had waited another month there would be no reversing the damage done.
Thankfully, we found that the cancer had not spread to his bone marrow. Later that week he was given his first round of chemotherapy. We were very blessed that he had no reaction to the medicine other than a bad case of shivers. The oncology floor felt like an extention of our family for how well they had taken care of us. As challanging as this situation may be we are so blessed that he is getting such great care.
As of June 25th, he has completed his second round of treatment. In another eleven days he will have a scan to see if the current treatment he is on is working against the cancer. He is feeling much better than he had three or four months ago. Our outlook is positive that he will beat this cancer and it will be a story we'll get to tell our family in the future. Throughout all of this Jerry has maintained a 4.0 GPA in his masters program. He is on long term leave from teaching until he has completed his teatments and his immune system is back to where at normal twenty four year old's should be.
We want to thank you all so much for taking the time to read Jerry's story. Any funds that are donated here will go directly toward his medical care. We will continue to keep everyone up to date with his treatment and progress as he kicks cancers ass.
- Katie
A lot of you who are going to read this know our story, for those of you who do not read along and please stick around for updates about how Jerry is doing.
Jerry is a twenty four year old, inner city school teacher here in Baltimore. In his off time he likes to play rugby, is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins for educational leadership, and the man I'm planning to marry in 2016. This past fall Jerry believed he hurt his back during a rugby game. As stubborn as he is he went to a chiropractor and physical theropy to aid him in getting better. There was some progress and we though his lower back pains were going away.
Bringing in 2015, Jerry was tired almost all of the time. I thought that something else had been going on that had him in some sort of funk. I insisted that he get checked out by a primary care doctor, but he could never seem to get an appointment that would work around his teaching and class schedule. We thought he had gotten sick from his student and tried to nurse everything back to normal yet nothing seemed to be working.
In late April, Jerry had been sleeping a lot more than normal. Night sweats and constant shivers kept him up at times, I began to thing that he had come down with a phenomena. His parents were in town for a visit and insisted that he see a doctor because he looked ill. A few days after they left he took himself to an Urgent Care after work. The Urgent Care did a blood test finding that he was anemic. They told him that he had to get to an emergency room and were going to call an ambulance. In his typical stubborn fashion he refused to be driven in the ambulance.
When he arrived at Howard County General, they rushed him into a room becasue his iron levels were so low. After two very long days and many tests we were given the answer to what has been going on. On May 2nd, Jerry was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin's Lymphoma. At that point they found that it had spread to his liver, spleen, and possibly into his bone marrow. His doctor had told us that if he had waited another month there would be no reversing the damage done.
Thankfully, we found that the cancer had not spread to his bone marrow. Later that week he was given his first round of chemotherapy. We were very blessed that he had no reaction to the medicine other than a bad case of shivers. The oncology floor felt like an extention of our family for how well they had taken care of us. As challanging as this situation may be we are so blessed that he is getting such great care.
As of June 25th, he has completed his second round of treatment. In another eleven days he will have a scan to see if the current treatment he is on is working against the cancer. He is feeling much better than he had three or four months ago. Our outlook is positive that he will beat this cancer and it will be a story we'll get to tell our family in the future. Throughout all of this Jerry has maintained a 4.0 GPA in his masters program. He is on long term leave from teaching until he has completed his teatments and his immune system is back to where at normal twenty four year old's should be.
We want to thank you all so much for taking the time to read Jerry's story. Any funds that are donated here will go directly toward his medical care. We will continue to keep everyone up to date with his treatment and progress as he kicks cancers ass.
- Katie
Organizer
Katie Marie
Organizer
Baltimore, MD
