This was originally an email sent out on August 10, 2016 to Thru the Bible Adult Equip Class (Adult Sunday School) at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg VA. It gives a brief snapshot of my five year journey with leukemia.
“Men shall speak of the might
of Your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.” Psalm 145:6
Today, August 10, 2016, marks
five years since the beginning of my leukemia journey. Five years ago today, I was rushed via
ambulance to Lynchburg General and my first blood tests showed that I had a
hemoglobin of 2.0. For those who do not
have a medical background, hemoglobin is basically your blood oxygen level and
a normal adult’s level should be between 13 and 18. I almost set a record for the lowest
hemoglobin in a living conscious human being.
As mom and I were in the
hospital, the first people that hurried over were Dr. Tommy Ice and his wife
Janice. They co-founded Thru the Bible Adult
Equip Class at Thomas Road Baptist Church with Dr. Dan and Nancy Mitchell, Dr.
Ed and Donna Hindson, and Dr. Randall and Beverlee Price. (So from Thru the Bible’s inception, it has
been a special class with world-class leaders/ teachers.) Janice Ice was familiar with leukemia because
her brother had battled it and she started crying when informed what my ailment
was. Both mom and I had no idea what
leukemia really was and what lay before us…
Lynchburg General was able to
stabilize me by infusing several units of blood and in the middle of the night
they transferred me up to University of Virginia Hospital (UVA) for specialized
care. Tommy and Janice had just arrived
back in town from a ministry trip, but they drove mom the 70 miles up to UVA
out of love, even though they were exhausted and jetlagged. The initial chemotherapies and treatments
caused me to lose some thirty pounds in three weeks, but fortunately I had some
weight to spare at the time. I had
intermittent chemo treatments from August through January 2012. Throughout all of this, Thru the Bible
members and leaders were lifting us up in prayer support, cards, and love gifts
and the love we felt helped us extremely through this time. Olive Ackerman who was a member of Thru the
Bible for many years, before moving with her family to Georgia in 2014, was and
continues to be one of the mightiest prayer warriors mom and I have ever
known. She was available 24/7 for mom to
call, and trust me, mom did call her during some of the darkest hours in this
journey, regardless of time. Olive never
complained about receiving a dire call from mom and always stopped everything
to strongly and boldly petition the Lord on our behalf!
It was believed that the
cancer journey was over in January 2012, so a fresh start was planned as we
headed to Nebraska for recovery and ministry but then ended up in Boise, Idaho
in the fall. In September 2012 in Boise,
the Leukemia came back with a vengeance and started attacking my central
nervous system. The quick thinking of oncologist
Dr. Schulteiss spared me from permanent damage and paralysis. While undergoing inpatient treatment in
Boise, I developed sepsis and was rushed to ICU. One week after my sepsis episode, mom had a
heart attack. In the Lord’s mercy, her
heart attack was at the best place to have one, in the hospital. Actually, she walked into my room and said
that she was not feeling right and asked me to Google on my phone symptoms of a
heart attack. We immediately summoned
the nurse and she was wheeled right into the cardiology unit. During this extreme time, mom’s brother (my
uncle) Todd and his wife Debbie did come out to visit us from Rapid City, SD,
which was a blessing. My mom’s mother,
Laverne, who was a believer, also died at the age of 90. Since we were not able to leave the hospital,
we could not attend the memorial service.
Now with Idaho being too
small to handle a bone marrow transplant, mom and I had to move down to Salt
Lake City Utah, where a dear Christian couple, Mark and Julie Scott took us
in. One hospital in Salt Lake City on
Valentine’s Day 2013 told me, “To go home and die for there is nothing else we
can do for you because the leukemia is back.”
We were one week out from the transplant and devastated. We did not sign the hospice paperwork and
from Valentine’s Day through April 1, 2013 mom took care of me day and night at
Mark and Julie’s home as my health deteriorated to the point that I could not leave
the bed or even feed myself. But this
was one of the most special times in our lives as we spent hours in the Word
and hymns each and every day. We learned
of another hospital in Salt Lake City that does bone marrow transplants and
that in Utah you have the right to request an ambulance to take you to the
hospital of your choosing. On April 1st,
with basically no platelets left (platelets prevent internal bleeding) and
extreme nosebleeds, emergency services came and transported me to Huntsman
Cancer Center at the University of Utah Hospital.
 |
| At one time, I had five medicines/ chemo treatments running at the same time! |
A young Jewish oncology
doctor, Dr. Sam, who was a senior fellow, evaluated me in the ER and decided
that they were up for a challenge and admitted me to their cancer ward. Basically, the first treatment that they did
on me was total body irradiation (TBI) and it worked by killing off all the
cancer cells. The previous hospital
stated that no reputable doctor would ever do radiation on me… After a few weeks in the hospital, a severe
life threatening bacterial infection developed.
The cure for this deadly infection had only been developed within the
previous year. Talk about God’s
timing! As I did recover from this, much
to the doctors’ surprise, they decided to move forward with the bone marrow
transplant which took place on July 10, 2013.
There were several tests that I had to pass before qualifying for the
transplant and they were very nerve-racking.
After 4 ½ months in the hospital, we left Huntsman and returned back to
Mark and Julie’s home. My 30th
birthday, October 16, 2013, was spectacular for Mark and Julie had a home
fellowship meeting at their house and I was healthy enough to be involved with
it and even started going to Gospel Grace Church on Sundays in a
wheelchair. The home fellowship threw me
a wonderful birthday party. The next
day, I had a bone marrow biopsy which showed that I had a 77% leukemic
infiltration and that meant the transplant failed. The outpatient oncology department was no
longer interested in saving my life. Mom
and I decided that if I were going home to be with the Lord, we would rather be
back in Lynchburg Virginia with our Thru the Bible Family. We immediately packed up the car and before
even informing the Salt Lake City doctors or getting ahold of my initial doctor
at UVA, we were on the road back to Lynchburg.
On the road, we were in touch with both sets of doctors, and Dr. Mike
Douvas at UVA graciously said he would always try to help treat me. We drove for 5 days straight because we were
on a race against time.
Mike and Tricia Maiuzzo were
so generous in taking us in for several months and we are forever grateful to
them and their hospitality and love. Dr.
Douvas, who has always gone the extra mile in treatments, stated that he would
give another chemo treatment a go, but there were no guarantees. He really believed that I was going to die,
but he created a unique chemo blend and it worked! Unfortunately, it has damaged the liver some,
but in God’s sovereignty He allowed the liver to be injured instead of another
organ, for the liver does repair itself to a point, unlike most other
organs. By February 2014, mom and I were
back attending Thru the Bible Adult Sunday School Class. Now they had historically shutdown for the
summer because all the teaching leaders traveled, so when it came to that time I
asked Dr. Price if it would be okay for the class to continue for I knew that
there were several members in the class who would be able to teach and hold
down the fort. He gave the okay and that
summer, class continued on with several members teaching, including
myself.
In October 2014, feeling
quite healthy we were hiking around Peaks of Otter Lake and I broke my right
ankle. For some unknown reason to us and
the doctors the ankle never really healed.
But we now know that the Lord allowed the ankle to not heal properly for
there were some renegade cancer cells running lose in my body and they ended up
congregating in the broken ankle. The
shock of having cancer again was demoralizing but God is faithful and it
appears that the 15 radiation treatments that I have just undergone have been
successful. They have been the most
painful treatments I have ever had. But Paul
in Philippians 3:10 declares, “That I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.” So I consider it an honor to suffer in this
way and His resurrecting power over both the spiritual and physical have been
and continue to be tremendously displayed.
Over the past six weeks or
so, the prayer support, cards, and love gifts from you in Thru the Bible have
been more meaningful and special than you could possibly ever imagine. Here, mom and I started attending Thru the
Bible in 2010 and I had never dreamed that one day I would co-lead/ teach this
most wonderful class filled with some of the most Christlike, loving, caring,
and compassionate people. It is a
privilege to serve you all, for you all are truly our family and we love each
and every one of you!
In Christ,
Brett T. Malott and Patricia
Class
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