The Beginning

Willie preparing for his lift on 3/16/12

What a difference two months can make!  On March 16, 2012 Will had a weight lifting competition in Chico, CA.  It was his first competition that he lifted "raw" which means he didn't use the support shirt that most power lifters use.  He did awesome at the lift and took first place in his weight class for the 5th year in a row with a record of 373 lbs.  A few weeks later he developed a tooth infection and visted the dentist who put him on antibiotics.  The antibiotics helped the tooth infection, but left him with a rash and pain in his leg.  During this time, he went to the Dr. to check on a minor belly button hernia he has and got some routine labwork done. He quit taking the antibiotic and the rash and leg pain went away.  A week later we received a phone call that his labs were abnormal and showing that his body was fighting a serious infection that may or may not be related to the tooth infection.  More labs were taken and 5 days later we learned that the labs weren't off because of the tooth infection, but most likely related to a more serious health concern like Leukemia.  We received this news on May 14, 2012. More labs were drawn that day and we were sent home with an appointment for two days later to see a hemotologist in Chico.  Tuesday May 15, 2012 started with a sense of forboding for both of us.  I was supposed to go up to Elk Creek to work until noon that day and woke up feeling like that was a bad idea.  Will woke up feeling unsettled as well.  He went down to open the Health Habit, our natural foods store that we just purchased on May first, and I went in to Northern Valley Indian Health to work for the morning.  I decided not to go to Elk Creek which would have put me out of cell phone reception until noon.  Instead I ended my day early so I could take paperwork over for Will's Medi-cal insurance application that I felt we should begin just incase the sitation was more serious than we thought.  Around 10 AM Will called me and said that he had just received a phone call from his Dr. saying that he needed to get to the emergency room ASAP because his blood counts had fallen from the previous day and we were now looking at a serious situation.  Will came home and told me the news.  I can't say I wasn't expecting it.  Something inside both of us knew that this whole situation wasn't caused by an innocent tooth infection. 
If there was a single moment that defined the beginning of our journey, it was then.  Up until that phone call we had talked ourselves into believing that the labs were showing a dental infection and nothing more serious.  Yet, inside both of us we knew it was a lie.  It was mid morning on Tuesday May 15th.  We sat in silence, tears streaming down both of our faces as we felt the full weight of what was about to happen.  I packed a bag for both of us, we called our families to let them know what was going on and went over to Enloe medical center in Chico.
We were instructed to ask for a Dr. Lombardi who works in the hematology department.  No one in the ER knew who he was and after much discussion they decided I was confused and must be asking for Dr. Bilardi.  They put us in an ER room the size of a shoe box and sent Dr. Bilardi in to see us.  There was so much confusion as he reviewed the notes sent over from our referring clinic.  He was a regular MD and couldn't figure out why we were there.  We weren't quite sure either!  He left the room and we were met by an arsenal of people asking question after question about Will's health, his symptoms, his current complaints.  Everyone wanted to know why we were there and all we knew is that his blood counts were dropping.  After about an hour of repetitive interviews with people trying to make sense of our presence in their ER, Dr. Lombardi appeared.  He was real!  I turns out he is an MD from Southern California who is temporarily filling in for the Cancer center.  That's why no one knew who he was!  He announced that we would be needing a bone marrow biopsy in order to confirm the suspicion of leukemia and without wasting any time he turned that shoe box ER room into a sophisticated chemistry lab.  Will laid on his belly while Dr. Lombardi drilled a thick needle into his hip and extracted the blod that flows inside the bone.  He then broke of a piece of his hip bone and handed everything to a lab tech who busily smeared samples on slides.  It was a most unpleasent procedure and Willie took it like a champ!  We were told that these results would not return until Friday 5/18/12, but because of Will's low red blood cell count he would be hospitalized until the results returned and given blood transfusions to bring the levels up.  What followed was another series of people asking all sorts of admission questions.  We were in awe of the amount of people it takes to simply get a room at Enloe!  That night we were moved from the ER to an isolation room on the 4th floor and began the waiting game for the results from the bone marrow biopsy.