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Our Journey in Photos

Our life before cancer...
August 21, 2015
 
On August 21, 2015, Matt and I headed off on a belated honeymoon for our 6-month anniversary!  Our first stop was Coeur d'Alene, Northern Idaho, where my mom and stepdad live.  By the time we arrived in Coeur d'Alene (after about 30 hours of traveling from New Zealand, through Australia and L.A.), Matt was feeling pretty terrible.  On the flight from Australia to L.A., he had started feeling really sick and feverish.  We chalked it up to New Zealand's winter and all the cold and flu bugs going around our offices, compounded by two sleepless nights (one night of traveling and the night before getting ready for our trip and leaving the house around 3am to catch our flight).
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I thought a night or two of good sleep would be all he needed to shake off his bug, but Matt ended up spending most of the next two days indoors in bed, rather than on the lake or in the outdoors -- opportunities he would typically never pass up.
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We had arrived in the U.S. on a Friday, and by Sunday I was starting to wonder if maybe something more serious was wrong.  He didn't seem to be getting better, and in fact, he seemed to be getting worse.  Maybe he had a really bad strain of the flu and needed medication.  Or maybe he had something more serious like pneumonia and needed antibiotics.  
 
On Sunday night, I woke up around 3am to find Matt standing in the bathroom.  He had sweated through the sheets, and then through a towel that he had put down on top of the sheets and was looking for another towel. That was when I decided we were going to the doctor first thing in the morning.  I mentioned this to Matt and he agreed. That's when I really began to worry.  Matt would never agree to go to the doctor (especially when we were on vacation) unless there was something seriously wrong.
August 24, 2015
 
On Monday morning, we headed to the Emergency Room.  We were hoping the doctors could give him a z-pack or some sort of medication to kick this thing to the curb before we left for California on Wednesday.  By the time we got the ER, Matt was feeling a bit better.  The dcotors ran some blood tests, and as we waited for the results to come back, Matt spent his time reading, napping, and poking fun at himself for allowing me to take him to the doctor for what was certainly just a bug...
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August 24, 2015
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Less than an hour later, the blood tests were back... 
 
I have never in my life seen a doctor's demeanor change so drastically as I did that day.  When we first arrived, the doctor who saw us was jovial, lighthearted, and had all the confidence of someone who was certain he could fix us up and send us on our way in no time.
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When he re-entered the room an hour later, it was as if all life had been sucked out of him.  His expression was one of sadness and heartache and concern.  I had never seen anything like it on a doctor before, and even before he began to speak, I knew something was seriously wrong.  Still, I could never have imagined just how wrong.  There is nothing that could have prepared me for what he was about to tell us.
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He said Matt had no white blood cells.  I had no idea what this meant, but I knew from his face that it was something bad.  He began to explain... no white blood cells means he has no immune system...
 
Okay, but why would he not have an immune system?  This makes no sense.  I really wished I had paid more attention in biology class.  
 
He explained that his immune system must be battling (and losing the battle) against a very serious disease (hepatitis, Lyme's Disease, HIV)...
 
Either that, or a he had a blood cancer. 
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That was the moment that all four walls that had been holding up my entire world came crashing down into a cloud of dust all around me.  I immediately ran to Matt, climbed onto the stretcher that he was lying on, and began to cry.  I knew this was not the reaction I was supposed to have.  I was supposed to be strong and assure him that everything would be okay, but there was no strength to be found within my body at that moment.  Everything inside me had turned to putty.
 
We were admitted to the hospital right away and were immediately put into isolation to try to protect him from any germs.  In the matter of an instant we had gone from "I hope there's a pill for this" to "There's no pill for this; also, you're now officially fighting for your life, so gear up." 
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We were assigned an infectious disease specialist and an oncologist (quite possibly the scariest word in the world).  We crossed our fingers and hoped for an infectious disease.  Anything but cancer.  Please...
August 26, 2015
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Wednesday was our 6-month wedding anniversary.  We were supposed to be traveling to California that day for a friend's wedding that weekend, but instead, we were sitting in the hospital, in isolation, waiting for a diagnosis.  Matt was needing constant blood transfusions at this point (and platelet transfusions and IVs for hydration and drugs for the fevers...), so he always had an IV tree attached to him.  We were told we should walk everyday to keep his strength, so we brought along the tree on our strolls through the hospital hallways.
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That night we ordered "room service" and celebrated our mid-year anniversary from the hospital room.  My, what a difference 6 months can make.