Ryan's adventure with Cancer
Hi,
My name is Ryan D. Luelf and I am from Tulsa, OK. I am married to my high school sweetheart, Caroline, of 20 years & we have 3 beautiful children: our son Addison (9), daughter Atlanta (5) & youngest son Arthur (3). I am 35 years old. My family has been hit with CANCER for the 2nd time in less than 6 months. First, my father is diagnosed in May of this year with terminal brain cancer, praise God he is alive & doing well. Now ME!
This past spring I first noticed two lumps on the right side of my neck. After doing a bit of research I simply thought nothing of them as I had no other symptoms. In August, two more lumps showed up, one under my chin & the other on my left clavical. I decided to see my PCP just to be safe. After an ultrasound & blood work I pretty much was no longer concerned because blood work was great & all my doctor said was I had swollen lymph nodes. He did suggest I see an ENT specialist to just confirm that, so I scheduled an appointment for early September.
On Labor Day, Monday evening 9/7 I headed to OKC from Tulsa to begin 2 weeks of training for my new job as a loan officer with Cornerstone Home Lending. On Wednesday, just two days after I arrived, I was awakend at 5:00am to the worst headache I had ever experienced in my life & I don't ever get headaches. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest this was a 12. Those persisted every day & mainly at night for the next 8 days. In fact some nights I couldn't sleep at all & was up all night before needing to go to the CHL office for 8 hours of training. In the middle of this I was having soaking wet night sweats, which now I realize had been happening for 2 months even at home (not soaking wet one's, but still night sweats). I played in a tennis tournament that weekend & actually won it & even passed my Oklahoma state mortgage exam, all by the grace of God. I bought reading glasses thinking that might help my headaches, I went to a chiropractor 3 days in a row, but nothing would releave them.
Wednesday evening, September 16th I again spoke with my MD friend in OKC & told him about these swollen lymph nodes. He said to visit his clinic in the morning so he could take a look at the lymph nodes and perform an eye exam. Once he saw my lymph nodes he immediately said that my left clavical was a Virchow's Node & that was a sign of Cancer. I headed home 2 days early from OKC to get MRI's done asap. On Friday night the 18th of September, I had 3 MRI's: brain, neck and abdomen. My doctor called me the next day to inform me that the neck & stomach were of concern as lymph nodes were "lighting up all over the place" & he was concerned it was lymphoma cancer. Next step was a biopsy of a node to confirm that fear. The following Tuesday I had a consultation with a surgeon. He said he was 99.9% sure I had lymphoma as you could feel the nodes from my groin area to my neck & everywhere in between including my arm pits. The biopsy surgery was performed on Thursday, September 24th, 2015.
On Tuesday, September 29th, we met with the surgeon to go over the results of the biopsy & sure enough it was B-cell Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer and they believe is a minimum of stage 3 & possibly stage 4. It appears to be fast growing & aggressive & progressing quickly. Of course that is not an easy report to hear no matter who you are & what you believe. At this point we have already encurred a tremendous amount of expenses as our fight to beat cancer begins. It's as if an entirely 2nd life is added on to what you already live in your normal life which doesn't slow down or stop for anything, including cancer. In order to attack this with nutrition, natural therapies & much more it will be extremely expensive over the next 6 to 12 months, perhaps as much as $50,000 or more on top of all our normal expenses. With both my wife Caroline & I being on 100% commission & me just starting a new job, it's not the most ideal time for us financially to be facing this challenge. There is no way realistically that her nor I can work during this time at the same capacity we would normally be able to. We are both still working & will continue to as much as humanly possible. It's going to take little to no stress, lots of time & a huge amount of financial resources to beat cancer in the most effective way possible. I have literally seen my life flash before my eyes in the past 10 days. I can't imagine not living as I LOVE my life & my family.
We will be happy to detail out our specifics needs for anyone who wants to help us financially or feels led to support. These expenses include, but are not limited to health & nutrition changes regarding food, supplements, herbs, certain machines, specific lymphatic system therapies, medical consultations and treatments. We have already begun the road back to health and believe combining all of these treatments is what is necessary to have the best chance of me WINNING. In addition, we will also have much of our normal work time eaten up with the time it takes to beat cancer & that cost us lots of money. Please feel free to email us at the email provided if you would like to know more specifics on what your hard earned money will go towards.
I will tell you this. It's going to a family who wants their husband, daddy, brother & son to live a long life & is going to do everything humanly possible to not only beat cancer but live cancer free for the rest of my days. It will go to give us the resources to make decisions that increase my odds dramatically that we just can't make without this financial support. You are literally investing in my life to save my life & a THANK YOU is honestly not even enough.
You can follow me on FB: www.facebook.com/doyouownyourlife
You can follow our blog:
theyololifeblog.wordpress.com to learn more, follow the adventure & be inspired to live differently because of what we share.
You can reach me personally at the email listed!
It's not about the size of your gift that matters, it's that whatever you give simply does matter.
"Many Hands make light work" ~
Grace,
Ryan
#LuelfStrong