I was told on March 1st of this year that my job and my department as a whole, were being terminated after a buyout and subsequent merger. While looking for new work, I decided to get a full check up while I had health insurance. I had been feeling incrementally more exhausted every day, and experiencing severe joint pain that I’d assumed was arthritis. Some alarming results came back – enlarged liver, anemia. On my last day, April 1st, my CAT scan results came back: it was acute leukemia. That night I checked into the hospital to start induction, and was told I had sepsis. I was dying. Thanks to the incredible team at Med City, we got the cancer that I had into remission. However my biopsy results came back showing the cause was an MLL gene rearrangement. Something like 10% of young adult leukemia is ALL, and something like 10% of those cases are MLL gene related. In studies, this is associated with a high risk for infection and relapse, and overall low prognosis. I’ll be receiving a bone marrow transplant in September, as the cancer can’t be cured with chemotherapy alone.
Brandon’s LifeList:
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Meet Andrew McMahon
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Meet Brian Tyler
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Meet Michael Angelekos
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Play a gig with his band