Support Alec to overcome Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Alec Andales is a brave 19-year-old teenage boy who wanted to study Business Marketing at one of the universities in Manila. He was born and raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where I work as an Overseas Filipino Worker. He studied in Jeddah from K-12, and he also completed his International Baccalaureate Diploma. He came back home to Purok 5, Cogon, Bogo City, Cebu, Philippines for good last June 20, 2022. He then went to Manila from Cebu last Aug 10, 2022, accompanied by her elderly grandmother to go to his chosen university. While me and his mother went back to Saudi Arabia to work. A few days after he settled in his apartment, Alec started feeling headaches most of the day and feeling dizzy every time he stands or do sudden movements. Aug 19, he visited a clinic nearby to have a check-up and a few hours later the doctor from the clinic advised him to go to the nearest hospital Emergency as all his blood counts (red, hemoglobin, white blood, and platelets) are below the critical level. He and his grandmother went to the ER of Manila Doctors hospital as advised. He was then admitted that night and was transfused with 3 bags of red blood until the next day. The Manila Doctors hospital did a few more tests to find out why it happened without prior injuries or illness and he stayed there for 3 more nights. Manila Doctors' first diagnosis was Pancytopenia secondary to Acute Leukemia.

His mother flew right away from Jeddah to Manila after the initial diagnosis and consulted another doctor at Philippine General Hospital which is more affordable for us. The Hematologist at PGH did a few more tests including bone marrow aspiration, biopsy, and flow cytometry on September 2, 2022. Even send some samples for other laboratory tests to St Luke’s Medical Center and to the National Kidney & Transplant Institute (NKTI). While waiting for all the test results, Alec was admitted to PGH and was transfused again with 3 bags of Red blood. He stayed there for a total of 4 nights, 2 nights alone and 2 nights with her grandmother again because his mother was positive for covid19. On September 9, his Hematologist at PGH confirmed the first diagnosis that he has Acute Myeloid Leukemia as per the result of the biopsy and another laboratory test. We were shocked and cannot believe what we heard. There were no symptoms nor indications prior to this, nor does he has any childhood illness that could lead to this nor it is inherited from both family sides.

On 20th September, after all the pre-chemo tests were completed, Alec was admitted again to PGH but this time it is for his first treatment Induction Chemotherapy where he will be staying for at least a month together with us (mom and dad). The chemo started on the 21st of September and he was given 2 medicines for the first 3 days namely doxorubicin and cytarabine. On the 4^th day, he was only given the cytarabine until the 7^th day and since then he is always in need of Platelets and packed RBC. Almost every 2 days he is transfused of 6-units of platelets and 1-2 bags of packed RBC. PGH required the patient to have blood donors to be able to get a bag of platelet and RBC easily on their blood bank. Otherwise, we have to outsource it from outside the hospital. One blood donor is equivalent to 1-unit of platelet and 1 bag of RBC. To date, Alec received a total of 26 blood donors already and we have sourced 18 units of platelets and 3 bags of RBC from the Red Cross and 2 units of platelets from another blood bank. From September 20 to October 25, 2022, he consumed a total of 74-units of platelets and 9-bags of Red Blood Cells.

Since the 27th of September, Alec has been fighting the side effects of Chemotherapy. He has chills and high temperatures of up to 40.2 degrees Celsius. His chills mostly last for an hour and sometimes a bit longer. After the chills, his body temperature will rise to 40 degrees, so we must keep him inside the shower for at least 15 minutes or cold compress him until it drops to below 39C. His colon was inflamed, and his stomach bloated like it was going to burst. The inflamed colon causes severe pain and especially when his body is shaking badly during his regular chills. He has had diarrhea as well and is frequently on the toilet. Since he has low RBC, low WBC, low haemoglobin and very low platelets, any efforts he makes are a struggle and most of the time after coming out of the toilet he is totally exhausted, which will trigger the chills again. He has been in terrible pain since then but because of your prayers and support, he stayed strong and determined to defeat this cancer. While the inflamed colon started to subside, he developed coughing which was later confirmed to be pneumonia that comes with a very dry cough. On the 6th of October, before pneumonia subsided, his appendicitis also got inflamed. Another terrible pain to face. It was very difficult to see how much pain he went through and endured.

October 24, 2022, we are still inside the hospital for more than a month, a bone marrow aspirate was extracted again from him for another biopsy and flow cytometry. We were anticipating a positive result as we were targeting remission and having a few weeks of rest before taking the next treatment which is supposed to be Consolidation Chemotherapy. But before the biopsy result comes out the doctor came and said they did have a look at the blood samples and still saw a noticeable amount of cancer cells. Arrrrggghhh. What terrible news to hear again. We were petrified that we did not reach the remission percentage that we are hoping for. The doctor informed us early so we can prepare and make a sound decision as they are offering re-induction chemotherapy with higher doses of medicine and with additional medicine instead of just doxorubicin and cytarabine. Alec’s body has not recovered yet, he lost so much weight and still has a fever. If we will not do the re-induction chemotherapy, there is a chance that the cancer cells will grow more and it will be harder to contain and get a remission later. If we do the re-induction, Alec will have to go through all the suffering again and maybe more side effects as his body are still weak and have no immune system so far. If remission is reached after re-induction, then he will have an allogenic bone marrow (stem cell) transplant to increase the chance of survival and be cancer free.

Alec, as a business-marketing student, was the first to worry about our capabilities to finance the treatment. I assured him that if he is willing to go for the treatment, we will support him and we will find a way to get medical assistance in any way we can. Our bills right now are 4 times more than what we expected due to more complications which resulted in more medicines and longer stays at the hospital. Now, instead of going forward to the Consolidation therapy, we have to do a re-induction. Our savings were depleted and we are trying to sell properties that can be sold quickly to cover up some of it. Our relatives, friends and colleagues are helping as much as they can but stem cell transplant is so costly, which will cost 3-5 Million Philippine pesos. This is why we are appealing for your kind support, to make the stem cell transplant possible for him.

Today, 26^th October 2022, our brave boy Alec, decided that he will do the re-induction and endure all the pain again. He will continue to be strong and face this scary nightmare once more knowing that he will wake up tomorrow healthy, happy and cancer free. His willingness to go through the re-induction even if his body is still weak is so encouraging and we will do our best to keep his optimism high all the way. Your contribution of any amount is very welcome and will be greatly appreciated. It will definitely help Alec go through all the chemotherapy and other treatment until the stem cell or bone marrow transplantation. Thank you and God bless you for your generosity and kindness. Please keep praying for him as well.

For local and direct donations
GCash - 09474825857 Arthur Manatad Andales
MetroBank - 482-3-482-16677-7 -Alec B. Andales
BDO - 006040111614 - ANNABELLE B. BALINGIT

Saudi Arabia direct donations:
Name: Arthur Andales
Bank: SABB
IBAN: SA1445000000259017184150