Alex was with his family when he passed peacefully earlier today, Wednesday, February 27th. We would like to thank everyone across the globe for their love and support. It meant a lot to us and Alex to hear from so many people. He really enjoyed reading all of the comments, letters, and cards.

We’re so grateful for the time we had with him. He will be missed.

Despite my best efforts over the past two and a half years, the leukemia has won. Due to liver inflammation and GvHD, the liver is too damaged to continue with treatment and there are no further options. I don’t want to spend the rest of my time in the hospital so I am choosing to remain at home where I can be comfortable with family and friends. If you want to read more about my journey through all of this, here are all of my posts with the cancer tag.

Since all of my plugins are open-source, they are free to be forked by reputable authors in the WordPress community. It would mean a lot to have my legacy go on.

I want to thank everyone who has given me moral support through these difficult times. It has meant a lot hearing all of the love and support pour in from my friends and colleagues from around the world. I have been so grateful for all of the opportunities that have been given to me in my life, professionally and personally. Automatticians have really helped me grow professionally by giving me an amazing career for the past nine years. My car friends have helped me grow socially and provided me so many good memories and life experiences. The people that I have gotten to know in the WordPress community have been very supportive as well. I am amazed by how many friends I have made and how much they have been there for me. They all have enriched my life and helped me grow as a person.

Thank you, everyone.

Lots to report on today. Some of it is pretty bad.

Back on January 24th, I got a bone marrow biopsy in order to more accurately determine the amount of leukemia present in me. The blood test I normally get is a genetic one and trends behind the actual bone marrow. The blood test had been showing a fraction of a percent and then later 3%. That was obviously trending in the wrong direction but the hope was increasing my special medication would keep things in check. It didn’t.

The bone marrow biopsy came back at a spotty 20% (amounts varied by area). This is not good at all as it means the leukemia has morphed into yet some other form that my donor immune system is having trouble keeping in check, either due to a change or being overwhelmed.

Complicating matters is that my liver is quite inflamed, presumably due to GvHD. However my oncologist wants to be actually sure that this is the cause so I’ll be getting a liver biopsy on Wednesday to confirm. The problem with my liver being inflamed is that it excludes me from many of the potential cancer treatments that I could be getting so we need to get that under control.

If all of that wasn’t enough, I also got a Group B Strep infection in my leg from the knee down. It was and is still swollen which wasn’t entirely unusual due to all of the crap I’m going through, but it got so swollen that it was extremely painful and I couldn’t walk. I ended up having to get admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics from January 24th to the 26th. I’m still swollen, especially my ankles and feet, but I can walk without pain again thankfully. I do get incredibly winded when I exert myself, but that’s yet a whole other issue.

But back to the cancer. They aren’t quite sure what the plan is from here, be it chemotherapy or something else. Whatever it will be though, I’m along for the ride. There’s nothing I can personally do about it, so why worry about it much?

My oncologist did mention that if at any point I want to just stop treatment and make myself comfortable, that I should let them know as they won’t keep asking. I have zero intention of going that route, but it’s a scary situation to think about. It kind of makes it very real.

Day by day though. Day by day.