Jason' Story for Dated Entries
On Tuesday, June 2, 2009, Jason was told that he had cancer.
It was near the end of March 2009 that 28 year old Jason Thompson, a self-employed window washer and post construction clean up provider in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, landed a job that required an extra person and some rented equipment. He called his father, Tony Thompson, who has a similar business in Bozeman, Montana, to come and help him. When Tony arrived toward the end of March, Jason was experiencing pain in his back. Assuming he had hurt it hauling large ladders around, he went first to his chiropractor and then to his doctor. He and his father had more than several false starts after Jason was unable to stand for more than a few minutes. The doctor treated him for sciatic nerve inflammation. Finally, after weeks of pain, a family friend was called to come and complete the job without him. It was during this time that he started waking up in the night soaked with sweat. Since Jason has just had a complete physical in December, his mother assumed he must have an infection somewhere.
On May 27 they went to the emergency room, Jason had lost over 20 pounds and was in constant pain. He was sent home with a prescription for antibiotics, having tested positive for strep throat. The same day his desperate mother called Dr. Johann Coetzee, a local MD and naturopathic practitioner. Dr Coetzee, suspicious after seeing Jason's appearance and hearing the symptoms, gave him a physical, ordered blood work and an ultrasound. On June 2, he gave Jason the terrible news.
That day they called the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and made an appointment for June 5.
June 24 update: Dr.s extracted bone marrow from his lower back yesterday. When they went to extract the marrow (normally jelly-like fluid) they took out a solid chunk-the cancer/ acute leukemia has completely taken over the bone marrow in the lower backbone. He also has cancer in his spinal fluid which causes compression and is affecting the use of his left leg to where he could barely lift it. They gave him steroids and chemo in the spinal canal yesterday which gave him a lot more strength today-really good sign.
Since his last CT scan the cancer has grown drastically. The liver has extended out and down, pressing on his spleen. There are multiple tumors on his liver; the largest one last CT scan was about 4 x 4 cm and is now 6 x 6 cm/a little over 2 x 2 in. He has a swollen belly due to the size of the liver (When you are a child you have an adult size liver and the stomach is enlarged-which is how Jason looks) There is a mass in the testicle. The lymph nodes are enlarged (they should not be more than a cm). There is cancer in both hip bones and in Sacrum (adjacent to pelvic bone), which looks like Swiss cheese on the CT image.
Now, Doctors do not think they will be able to figure out what kind of cancer he has: Acute Lymphoma or Leukemia also called Histiocytic sarcoma or acute myeloid leukemia with monocytic differentiation(the difference between the two are different types of cell lines). They look very similar, and are complicated and rare. They will have to choose one cancer treatment which may help the other kind of cancer. They are still deciding on the best treatment and will definitely start tomorrow and do it aggressively-with maybe only one chance. They will give treatment specifically in the spinal fluid 2xs a week during the other treatment for the rest of the body. Need to radiate testicles.
They will probably do the Leukemia treatment since it is aggressive and could potentially kill both diseases. Over a week period of time and blood levels will get low. He will be sick with sores in mouth and need nutritional support. He will have one week of treatment and 3-5 weeks hospitalization, which may cure the lymphoma and leukemia. Other treatment would be 1 day and repeating every 2-3 weeks, but it would not likely cure the leukemia.
He will have CT, radiation, and ultrasound of the heart today. He is having a good day, can stand and ate all his breakfast.
Jason is not able to receive Medicaid since he doesn't have a child. He also must be 100% disabled (unable to be employed to even answer phones) in order to qualify. Not a candidate for research-because he has more than one type of thing going on. There have only been 20 cases in last 20 years of this kind of Histiocytic Sarcoma.
Dr Solberg was his managing physician
