Stephen and Erica Farr

Update from Erica…

Stephen hadn’t been feeling well for the last 4 or 5 days. Things got bad enough we begrudgingly went to ER Thursday afternoon. After some testing and scary results, we didn’t quite expect to hear they suspected ALL (leukemia). We were transferred quickly to KU for further workup followed by lots of quick testing.

Today we have a diagnosis of Acute T cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia…. It’s rare and comes on fast. It’s caused by a cell mutation and isn’t generally hereditary.

Stephen is a trooper… today he’s had his echo to check heart function before starting chemo (which was good), bone marrow biopsy which over the next two weeks will give us results that will help determine prognosis & guide further treatment, PICC line insertion for chemo, and lumbar puncture to determine if the cells have entered spinal fluid. During the LP they will give chemo directly into spinal fluid to prevent cells from being there if they aren’t already…. If results show some were already present, the chemo schedule will change some.

He will also start his IV chemo today. We anticipate at LEAST a 3 week stay and potentially longer depending on his blood counts.

Chemo will be the next 2-3 years and depending on how things respond to chemo alone, he may also need a bone marrow transplant.

Obviously we expected none of this but here we are so we will take it one day at a time. Our care has been great & we covet your prayers…. Specifically for our kids, for success with treatment, for minimal to no side effects from meds, for peace and strength as we fight together, and for Stephen to not go stir crazy.

The goal of leukemia treatment is to cure it permanently and unlike other types of cancers it isn’t staged and isn’t necessarily benefited by starting treatment earlier.

This is very outside my realm of knowledge and it’s hard being at the mercy of waiting, but we feel confident moving forward!

I’ll try my best to keep everyone updated.

For now Stephen is doing pretty well all things considered… he’s very tired, short of breath from some fluid in his lungs and from his liver & spleen being extremely enlarged. With treatment starting, doc believes he will start to feel much better soon.

As his blood/cell counts drop it’s going to be extremely important to keep illness exposure far far away….sorry in advance.