My journey of life changing events began in 2009. I was a healthy, athletic 25 year old. I had never had any serious illnesses, just broken bones and a few close calls. It started about April of 2009 when I started feeling bad. The closest thing I can describe the feeling to be like is the flu except about 5 times as bad. I went to the doctor and they put me on antibiotics for awhile. Symptoms never got any better. Over the period of the next three monthes I would return to my doctor feeling worse and worse. They never did a blood test. They just kept trying different antibiotics. My symptoms got so bad that I couldn’t hardly eat. I had lost alot of weight, I had petecia spots on my skin. (Little red blood spots). I also had bruises that would appear out of no where and I noticed that cuts and scrapes were not healing. I would lay in bed all day because I had no energy or any strength. Then on July 2nd, 2009 I was walking across the job site at work and I felt like someone had put a huge weight on my lungs. I remember seeing dots and green spots like I was gonna pass out. The next thing I remembered was waking up on a hospital cart with nurses around me pushing my bed down a hallway. One of the nurses looked down at me and told me where I was and that I was on my way to the James Cancer part of the hospital. Come to find out later on that night I had stopped breathing and they had to do chest compressions on me to bring me back. They started chemo immediately that night. My white blood cell count was dangerously high and if they wouldn’t have started the chemo I would have died that night. I was diagnosed with Acute Mylogenic leukemia. I ended up spending about 35 days in the hospital that time. About six monthes went by and I was doing okay. Life had returned to somewhat normal. But the day after Christmas in 2009 I woke up and felt different. I knew for some reason my disease had returned. I went to OSU James cancer that day and sure enough by disease returned. This time it was actually worse. The had to do a procedure called apheresis where the filter your blood and put it back in your body. It is basically like dialysis. The put a catheter I.V. In your main artery in your neck and one in your leg. The blood goes out one catheter and through a machine and back into the other catheter. After they did this procedure they started chemo. This time instead of staying for a few weeks I ended up staying in the hospital for 111 days. I was also diagnosed with three other types of cancer on top of my leukemia. U was diagnosed with brain cancer, spinal cotd cancer and lung cancer. I lost almost 100 lbs. I was in extremely good shape at the time. I worked out everyday and ran. I was 213lbs and went down to 118lbs. After three and a half monthes of being in the hospital I was released to go home on hospice with three monthes to live. The doctors could do no more. I had five different doctors give up on me. After going home I had to return everyday Monday thru Friday to get blood transfusions and platelets. That’s when I met the doctor I have now. He brought up the fact that there was a small possibility they could do a stem cell transplant. This was pretty new to cancer. It was basically a clinical trial. The catch to it was that I had to have a match which would be extremely unlikely and my blood work had to be in somewhat normal ranges. This is when I really started praying to God. I wanted to see my kids grow up. I wanted to be around longer. I felt like I wasn’t done here yet. After a few weeks my doctor had found a match in Europe. They brought me up to the hospital and my blood work was ideal to do the transplant. So they did radiation on my brain for the cancer that was there and lumbar punters with chemo injections for my spine. I spent about 30 days in the hospital for my transplant. After getting out I has some complications with my immune system but overall the transplant was a success. Then in the beginning of 2012 I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. They removed a one inch mass from my bladder and I had to be put into a nursing home for about a year. During this time is when I met my River family and met Mike and Cindy. I started regularly attending the River and committed my life to God. After about a year and a half going there I started having horrible headaches. So I went to OSU and had tests run. After a few days I got a phone call while I was at work. The doctors wanted me to come in and start chemo immediately. I was diagnosed with spinal leukemia. So I went for my first round and after that the following week on a Tuesday I returned for my second round of chemo and to discuss the treatment plan. That day when I asked the nurse practitioner what was going to happen he looked directly at me and Alisha and said “this is going to kill you”. We were devestated. My world was turned upside down. I felt like I had fought so hard for nothing. They also tested my bone marrow that day to see if my original leukemia had returned. So that afternoon after getting home there was a knock on out door. News had traveled fast. There stood Mike and Cindy. They asked how I was and if they could pray for me. We talked for a minute and they prayed over me and left. I was anxious to know my test results from my bone marrow biopsy. So I called osu and found out that it was clear. That was one less thing to worry about. Three days after being told this was gonna kill my I returned to the James for my third round of chemo. When I walked in and sat down my nurse practitioner walked in and said “guess what” I told him I already knew my bone marrow was clear. He said “yeah but guess what?”. I looked at him and said ” what Jon?” He looked at me and said I don’t know what happened but after telling you this was gonna kill you we can’t find the cancer…..it took the breath out of my lungs. I literally went from making funeral plans to celebrating. I firmly believe this was God. I know without a doubt that the only logical reason I’ve made it through all this was God and the people he has placed in my life along the way…one more short testimony to the greatness of God. I had gotten hurt in 2006 and did some pretty bad damage to my left knee. They told me eventually I would have to have it totally replaced. Well from all the steroids they’ve had me on for my cancer it did even more damage and in 2012 I was told I needed a total replacement. I hadn’t been able to even jog in years and walked with a limp. I had developed a condition called a vascular necrosis, it’s a condition where your blood isn’t circulating to the bones properly and causes the bones to die and collapse. One night at home group with Mike and Cindy, Jacob and Cindy prayed over my knee for healing. I didn’t really think about it to much until a couple weeks later. I was giving my wife a hard time and she looked at me and said “don’t forget you can’t run from me” I laughed and said yeah I can and I took off running from her. That was the first time I’d ran in four years. I couldn’t believe it. Before this if I would’ve tried to run my legs would give out. God is good.
