Medical & life expenses while Josh fights cancer

2023 is the year that flipped our world upside down. Hi, we are Josh and Alyssa and on January 10th, 2023, Josh was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma cancer (MM)– a rare form of cancer that affects the bones, kidneys, and immune system. Since then, we, as a young couple, have been navigating this new journey full of obstacles, challenges, and road bumps, and we both have come to realize that we can’t do this alone and need help from our family, friends, and community.

From the beginning…

Around May/June Josh began to notice some abnormal health issues, including the start of pain in certain areas of his body. Over the next few months, things began to get slightly worse, but we joked and choked it up to him getting older and experiencing “older growing pains” after someone turns 30. In September, Josh saw his doctor as things continued to get worse, but at that time nothing stood out in any of the tests that concerned the doctor too much. It was not until October that Josh took a turn for the worse.

Toward the end of October early in the morning, Josh woke up and when he began to stand he felt massive pain to where he thought he broke his back. Having a history of herniated and torn discs, Josh received imaging shortly after that confirmed that is what he had – at least we thought. Thinking it was just a herniated and torn disc, all he needed was to have time to heal. Unfortunately, as time went on, he was not healing and things continued to get worse. Each time he coughed or had abrupt movements he felt as if his bones were breaking - little did we know they were.

It was on January 6th, 2023 that Josh went into the ER to get checked out as more health concerns had recently begun to happen a few days prior. Once checked in, he had a ton of blood tests and a CT scan. After a few hours of waiting, which felt like an eternity, we were told Josh had multiple lesions and 4 compound fractures in his spine, and his kidney levels were quickly falling into kidney failure. At this time, they believed it was Multiple Myeloma but needed further testing to confirm as the doctors were in disbelief that such a young person could have MM. They admitted Josh into the hospital that night. It felt like a whirlwind has swept us up, frightful of what may come.

Over the next week, while he was in the hospital, 7 doctors were assigned to him as his case was considered unique and unusual for a young person to have MM, and was puzzling to the doctors. While there, Josh fought hard for his life, and the doctors watched him like a hawk. He finally had a bone marrow biopsy and it confirmed Josh had MM and it had already consumed 90% of his bone marrow. The moment we found out, the air left my lungs and it felt like the rug had been pulled from under our feet. It took all my strength to not cry in front of the doctors. I remember walking out of the room bursting into tears while our nurse Sarah hold me tight as our whole world just changed – nothing else mattered but getting him better. I remember Josh's face just frozen as if this was just a bad dream and he was going to wake up soon.

It still blows our minds that we went into the ER thinking it was a herniated and torn disc and he left with cancer, cancer that typically affects older adults 65-70 years and older, not 30-year-olds. Because of the severity of his cancer, Josh began heavy chemo the next day. He was not discharged until Friday the 13th as it took him a while to finally be stable enough to leave.

Since then…

Josh and I have been adjusting to our new life filled with multiple doctor’s visits throughout the week, weekly chemo treatments, and ongoing medical procedures. All the while trying to navigate life obstacles such as medical expenses (he is currently at 100k and growing in medical expenses), financial stress since Josh is currently on a leave of absence from his work and does not meet the qualifications for FMLA and LOA as he was shy of the time requirement with his new company, and just the daily life changes as now I am a full-time caretaker, while working and growing a new business, until he can gain more strength and heal.

Life is chaotic and messy right now, but one thing is clear – how much we love each other and how we are in this together. I am his rock and he is mine, and our loving families and friends are both our rocks - we will NOT let cancer bring us down. Living by the moment we remind hopefully - we laugh, we joke, we do little things to show how much we love each other. Our love story is unique as we never thought in a million years this would happen to us, let alone happen to him – a man who has a heart of gold, who gives back to his community, volunteers, and always lends a helping hand to others with nothing asked in return – why did this happen to such a caring and loving man who never hesitates to help others.

What’s next?...

At this time, Josh will continue to do his weekly chemo treatments until about April. After his chemo, he will be relocating to the Knight Cancer Center at OHSU in Portland, OR for Stem Cell Infusion. There Josh will have to stay at the Knight Center for a month to a month and a half, while I will be doing my best to hold down the fort by taking care of his needs and our dog Blitz. After he is done with his stem cell infusion, we pray that the cancer will be in remission. However, since there is no cure for this cancer it is possible and most likely it will come back in 5-plus years and we will have to repeat this whole process – however, we have faith that a cure will be discovered!

At this time, we are needing help financially with medical bills, food, rent, utilities, and expenses for moving, as we will be moving his stuff into storage in February, and he and I eventually will be moving up to Vancouver/Portland for his Stem Cell treatment and continuing care.

Both he nor I are not the type to ask for help we are the ones to be the helpers for others. But as we have learned it takes a village to live in this world today and we need help. We ask for your support as we continue to navigate this journey he and I are on. Whether you feel comfortable donating money through gofundme, or you prefer to send money directly to us through Venmo or other forms or send food gift cards, or if you live locally to make us a meal – we would be so appreciative and grateful for any help you can give. We ask that you keep us in your prayers and thoughts – from the bottom of our hearts we thank you – thank you for whatever you can provide.

With love,

Josh and Alyssa

What is Multiple Myeloma?

Multiple myeloma, also known as Kahler’s disease, is an uncommon blood cancer that affects the bone marrow, the body’s blood-forming system, and can lead to kidney problems. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cell. Normal plasma cells are a type of white blood cell that helps make up your immune system. They are located within the bone marrow - the spongy interior of bones that produces blood cells. When your body is fighting an infection, plasma cells produce antibodies (proteins) which attack viruses and bacteria.

If a plasma cell becomes cancerous, it multiplies rapidly. This is multiple myeloma. The malignant plasma cells may crowd out normal blood-forming cells within the bone marrow, reducing the production of healthy blood cells. Additionally, rather than producing infection-fighting antibodies, the cancer cells begin to produce an abnormal antibody called a monoclonal protein (m protein) or paraproteins. In the urine, they are called Bence Jones proteins. These proteins do not fight against infection.

Currently, there is no cure for MM but on-going research over the past 10-15 years has generated multiple forms of treatment and people are living longer with full lives. We hope that soon there will be a cure for MM.

Multiple Myeloma - learn more