Hello,
My name is Alexander Mikheev, I am 31. Since February 25 I've been at
City Hospital 31 in St. Petersburg where I have never imagined I'd find myself.
On February 24 I was at my job not suspecting anything bad could happen, and
on the 25th I had a severe bleeding. I was taken to hospital, and as
soon as on the next day I was diagnosed with acute myeloblastic leukemia.
Later on the diagnosis was specified and I heard another one, even more
terrible: neuroleukemia. Which means that it's not only the bone marrow
that is involved but the spinal marrow too.
I was administered chemotherapy. Remission was achieved. But... trouble
always comes in threes. On March 20 my legs went numb due to spinal marrow
compression and pelvic organs malfunction. Chemotherapy led to mycotic
(fungal) lung infection. During the time I've been staying at hospital
I had three sepses. At present I am in for another chemotherapy course i
ntended to consolidate the remission. But my only chance to recover and
avoid a relapse is a bone marrow transplantation. Based on the preliminary
search results there are several potential non-relative donors for me
(unfortunately my own relatives are not matching). In all those months
I had to go through such sufferings that even doctors who have seen much
think it terrible. Doctors from other units were coming to take pictures
of me: the hospital hasn't seen such patients in the past 30 years. Meanwhile,
I continue to struggle in spite of everything. But I found myself in a
difficult financial situation. It is rather hard to resolve it from a
hospital ward with numb legs.
Unfortunately my father died long ago, and my mother is a pensioner. I also
have a young wife who has just started her career after college. It would
take her a minimum of 3 years to earn the money needed for the transplantation
(15,000 euros for the donor search and 2,500 euros for the transplant delivery).
Of course we could sell our room but then if I do survive we will simply
have no place to live. And there's hardly any chance that I will be able
to earn and save the money to buy another one with such a diagnosis.
I realize that lots of little kids are sick with this terrible disease.
They are sinless and need help more that I do. But for me too your help is
the only chance to be take joy in the first snow together with you, to be
happy to see the sunset and sunrise and simply to exist.
Update as of July 1, 2010.
Sasha was hospitalized for the 4th cycle of chemotherapy at
City Hospital No.31. He feels relatively well. Unfortunately,
he received very few donations and we cannot
initiate a donor search for him.
Update as of July 7, 2010.
Alexander completed 4th cycle of chemotherapy and he is starting
to prepare for transplantation. We need to make a prepayment to
initiate the donor search.
As soon as Sasha's relatives (his mother, sister and brother)
heard that he needs money, they promptly offered him to find it
by himself and not expect help from them.
Maria, Alexander's wife
