Help Mike Beat Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Donation protected
Hi everyone so there's been an update...Im sorry this is long but i thought u wud want to know about his disease & about Mike as a person he means a lot to alot of ppl...
So Things have not been going 2 plan you could go as far as saying that they have not been going good as of right now. We keep getting hit with really bad news. For everyone that is new here hi my name is Sara & Im hoping you all can see it in your hearts to help a man out that has literally done nothing but help ppl & work hard @ his 2 jobs. His name is Mike Riggi & he has been through hell and back... with platelet infusion, blood transfusions, spinal taps and bone marrow biopsies multiple of each. Then you have a catheter going from his jugular to his chest sewn then moved to a PICC line in his arm. diagnosed with AML Acute Myeloid Leukemia. We have found out that he has one of the worst cases of AML and one of the worst Mutations. His mutations are FLT3-ITD with WT1 which stands for Wilms Tumor One that mutation allows you to basically get another cancer in your body its pron to tumors on any part of his body. It could be the Kidney, Liver or even a Lung. He was in the hospital for 2 . The first cycle of chemo didn't do much his body was riddled with cancer cells. 70% of his body we're all cancer cells. Then he had chemo and they thought his age would help him but it hasn't yet. The chemo only brought him down to 48% answers cells in his body. So then they gave him the very highest dose & highest kind of chemo they could possibly give someone. While in the hospital he lost his hair instantly it wasn't a slow progressing kind of cancer it literally plucked him out of his life and destroyed everything that he had going on. Anyway so after that they did a bone marrow biopsy and found 10% cancer still in his body & that sounds good but it might not be. He had barely any cells in his bone marrow. Overall he had 10% regular cells in his bone marrow so the cancer cells were 10% of 10% basically. The problem is once his regular bone marrow cells grow the cancer cells will too. But they won't be able to tell for sure. Until Mid-May & if that's the case it means the treatment did not work either. And then it's like where do you go from here? He's also on a clinical trial for a FLT3 inhibitor and he's on the best possible chemo FLT3 inhibitor pill that's out right now. Then we are told that it is not working for him so they're going to another drug and the next two drugs are very very expensive she said. He keeps getting kicked when he's already down we think it's the worst of it but then someone comes up with information that just defeat you. He's a very loving soul family means everything to him he wants to be there with his family but he can't. Because his white blood cells are 0.2%. You're not even supposed to be let out of the hospital until you have a whole 1% of white blood cells . They just thought maybe because he had the highest possible chemo you can have it's just taking longer to go up so we were released and its been over 50 days since his last dose of high intensive chemo. rAnd his W.B.C.'s are still at 0.2%. So he still can't see his family or go anywhere for that matter. He has a pic in his arm lots of medicine he has to take. We're just hoping people see what kind of person he is and donate to his cause. I know things will keep changing probably I'm hoping for the better but for now this is what has happened. We have to go to the hospital every other day which makes it very hard for me to go to work I was hoping once you got out of the hospital things would be a little bit more stable I've never been through this before. And thank you for the people who have already donated this is going to help so much towards bills General bills and medical co-pays. We are worried about this new treatment usually they don't tell us how expensive the treatment is. It was so odd to learn about that from the doctor herself. He's healing really slowly he's got mouth sores all in his mouth and he's had them there for over a month it's just not healing properly because he has no white blood cells. The Doctor seemed concerned about his White Blood Cells and was almost like she was confused why it's not going up? He is going to need a Bone Marrow Transplant but we dont know how far away that will be or if its even attainable but by the will of god he is working hard to be ready for one if and when his body os able to have one... As a child Mike was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation & scoliosis. He needed to have a shunt surgically implanted at the base of his skull then had to wear a back brace for a while. They released him with an IV then had to be rushed back to the hospital due to the infection he picked up his fever sky rocketed to 104.6... About Mike ppl say they could tell him anything. He listens and is just there for ppl but at the same time is always trying to lighten the mood get ppl to smile. He cares more for others then he does himself. Mike is sensitive and can hurt easily but tries not to show it other times if something is happening with his family he may fall to pieces. He loves to make time for family... I cant tell you how many times he has helped my family or their friends, who he never even met before. My friends his friends he's just a kind sweet likable guy. If you ask anyone to describe him the first thing they will say is that he has a good heart then he is sensitive & caring but loves to joke around. He's respectful & polite to everyone. All Mike ever wanted was a family of his own but unfortunately his gf cud not have kids. It took years but they both accepted it. That is until they ended up pregnant they were so happy. But that was not to be around the end of month 3 we got the news that the heartbeat had faded away. Mike was devastated. It took a couple years to come back from the loss and a few years to try again with no luck. So they decided to get married everything was set June 11th 2022 was suppose to be the date that to was a dream that slowly faded but mot completely gone but it will have to be when he's better and can be around ppl. Mike worked so hard he was about to get a raise that would helo our financial situation tremendously but then he ended up at Roswell with that disappearing. Then they told him out of the international Donor Database they could not find him a match Rosewell said THATS only happened a handful of times it is very rare they said. We were crushed. Then out of nowhere a perfect match not only that but the same DNA his brother was a 10 out of 10 we were so happy. But every time something good seems to happen to him it also gets taken away. Roswell did say you can have a match but never get to the Transplant because you have to be in remission to get one. But through all of this he stays joking around laughing loving his family with facetime and phone calls. And even though he CANT go and do anything he finds ways to smile...So now we pray we pray it wont be like everything else.
So Things have not been going 2 plan you could go as far as saying that they have not been going good as of right now. We keep getting hit with really bad news. For everyone that is new here hi my name is Sara & Im hoping you all can see it in your hearts to help a man out that has literally done nothing but help ppl & work hard @ his 2 jobs. His name is Mike Riggi & he has been through hell and back... with platelet infusion, blood transfusions, spinal taps and bone marrow biopsies multiple of each. Then you have a catheter going from his jugular to his chest sewn then moved to a PICC line in his arm. diagnosed with AML Acute Myeloid Leukemia. We have found out that he has one of the worst cases of AML and one of the worst Mutations. His mutations are FLT3-ITD with WT1 which stands for Wilms Tumor One that mutation allows you to basically get another cancer in your body its pron to tumors on any part of his body. It could be the Kidney, Liver or even a Lung. He was in the hospital for 2 . The first cycle of chemo didn't do much his body was riddled with cancer cells. 70% of his body we're all cancer cells. Then he had chemo and they thought his age would help him but it hasn't yet. The chemo only brought him down to 48% answers cells in his body. So then they gave him the very highest dose & highest kind of chemo they could possibly give someone. While in the hospital he lost his hair instantly it wasn't a slow progressing kind of cancer it literally plucked him out of his life and destroyed everything that he had going on. Anyway so after that they did a bone marrow biopsy and found 10% cancer still in his body & that sounds good but it might not be. He had barely any cells in his bone marrow. Overall he had 10% regular cells in his bone marrow so the cancer cells were 10% of 10% basically. The problem is once his regular bone marrow cells grow the cancer cells will too. But they won't be able to tell for sure. Until Mid-May & if that's the case it means the treatment did not work either. And then it's like where do you go from here? He's also on a clinical trial for a FLT3 inhibitor and he's on the best possible chemo FLT3 inhibitor pill that's out right now. Then we are told that it is not working for him so they're going to another drug and the next two drugs are very very expensive she said. He keeps getting kicked when he's already down we think it's the worst of it but then someone comes up with information that just defeat you. He's a very loving soul family means everything to him he wants to be there with his family but he can't. Because his white blood cells are 0.2%. You're not even supposed to be let out of the hospital until you have a whole 1% of white blood cells . They just thought maybe because he had the highest possible chemo you can have it's just taking longer to go up so we were released and its been over 50 days since his last dose of high intensive chemo. rAnd his W.B.C.'s are still at 0.2%. So he still can't see his family or go anywhere for that matter. He has a pic in his arm lots of medicine he has to take. We're just hoping people see what kind of person he is and donate to his cause. I know things will keep changing probably I'm hoping for the better but for now this is what has happened. We have to go to the hospital every other day which makes it very hard for me to go to work I was hoping once you got out of the hospital things would be a little bit more stable I've never been through this before. And thank you for the people who have already donated this is going to help so much towards bills General bills and medical co-pays. We are worried about this new treatment usually they don't tell us how expensive the treatment is. It was so odd to learn about that from the doctor herself. He's healing really slowly he's got mouth sores all in his mouth and he's had them there for over a month it's just not healing properly because he has no white blood cells. The Doctor seemed concerned about his White Blood Cells and was almost like she was confused why it's not going up? He is going to need a Bone Marrow Transplant but we dont know how far away that will be or if its even attainable but by the will of god he is working hard to be ready for one if and when his body os able to have one... As a child Mike was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation & scoliosis. He needed to have a shunt surgically implanted at the base of his skull then had to wear a back brace for a while. They released him with an IV then had to be rushed back to the hospital due to the infection he picked up his fever sky rocketed to 104.6... About Mike ppl say they could tell him anything. He listens and is just there for ppl but at the same time is always trying to lighten the mood get ppl to smile. He cares more for others then he does himself. Mike is sensitive and can hurt easily but tries not to show it other times if something is happening with his family he may fall to pieces. He loves to make time for family... I cant tell you how many times he has helped my family or their friends, who he never even met before. My friends his friends he's just a kind sweet likable guy. If you ask anyone to describe him the first thing they will say is that he has a good heart then he is sensitive & caring but loves to joke around. He's respectful & polite to everyone. All Mike ever wanted was a family of his own but unfortunately his gf cud not have kids. It took years but they both accepted it. That is until they ended up pregnant they were so happy. But that was not to be around the end of month 3 we got the news that the heartbeat had faded away. Mike was devastated. It took a couple years to come back from the loss and a few years to try again with no luck. So they decided to get married everything was set June 11th 2022 was suppose to be the date that to was a dream that slowly faded but mot completely gone but it will have to be when he's better and can be around ppl. Mike worked so hard he was about to get a raise that would helo our financial situation tremendously but then he ended up at Roswell with that disappearing. Then they told him out of the international Donor Database they could not find him a match Rosewell said THATS only happened a handful of times it is very rare they said. We were crushed. Then out of nowhere a perfect match not only that but the same DNA his brother was a 10 out of 10 we were so happy. But every time something good seems to happen to him it also gets taken away. Roswell did say you can have a match but never get to the Transplant because you have to be in remission to get one. But through all of this he stays joking around laughing loving his family with facetime and phone calls. And even though he CANT go and do anything he finds ways to smile...So now we pray we pray it wont be like everything else.
Organizer and beneficiary
Michael Riggi
Organizer
North Tonawanda, NY
Joseph Riggi
Beneficiary