“God Help Me!!!” – This is the shout of a 26 year old Leukemia patient while blood was coming out from his nose and mouth back in February 2015 when all of his blood test results went below normal.
Michael Angelo Go is a 3rd year Medicine student and a graduate of Nursing batch 2011 at Gullas College in Cebu City. Aside from being a doer, having volunteered after typhoon Yolanda devastated the Visayas area a few years back, Michael is also known to some to be a giver. One story that I heard about my brother was when he helped an old man he met on his way home, who needed money to buy his medications. Even though he was tired and in a hurry to go home after spending long hours in the hospital as an OJT, Michael took the time and used his own money to buy medicines for the old man. This is a very inspiring story that will spur all those who hear it to do the same for others. We never expected that Michael, a man with a good and helpful heart for those in need, would be in the same situation, where he has to be the one to be helped due to his disease.
In October 2014, Michael was in the middle of his Nursing review for the December licensure exam when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). We never expected this to happen to our own brother. His WBC went to as high as a 300K+ count which is considered to be very critical. I can still remember when Michael told me that he suspected that he had Leukemia, before the doctor confirmed the illness the following day, when he was admitted in Chong Hua Hospital. Upon hearing of Michael’s prognosis, my mother and sisters became disappointed and depressed. Between November up to December 2014, Michael was declared in remission after a weekly Intrathecal procedure, BMA and chemotherapy. We thanked God for the wonderful news! This though was just the beginning of many more challenges that were coming our way.
Around the 3rd week of January 2015, Michael was complaining about numbness in both his hands. A week after, he could barely feel his right cheek and later his right eye was losing its vision. My mother and Michael went to an eye specialist and Neuro doctor in Chong Hua hospital and was told to observe the situation. Michael was later diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy. February came and the situation got worst when he could not maintain his balance due to double vision, numbness in both cheeks and weakening of his muscles. My sister and I along with our mother had him admitted in Chong Hua hospital soon after, were he underwent BMA, MRI, CTSCAN, Nerve test, CBC and X-ray. After a battery of tests, all laboratory results were found to be normal. The doctors were very puzzled about the situation and after a few days they diagnosed my brother with GBS (Guillain Barre syndrome), an illness that paralyses the nerves from foot up to the neck. We had him treated for GBS with the medicine called IV-IG and portacath insertion but saw no progress. Instead, Michael’s condition worsened, as he was not able to walk and get hold of things. The worst part was that both eyes were now closed with total black out on his right eye. Aside from these, he also had a leukemia relapse. Doctors immediately gave him a high dose of chemo. Two (2) days after his February 27th birthday, Michael experienced God’s grace and healing, when he was able to open his left eye with a blurry vision. After a month of admission, doctors in Cebu told us to fly to Manila for Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT).
On April 21 2015, we arrived in Manila with my mother and directly headed to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) under the care of Dra.Baylon, a well known Hematologist. After a week of laboratories, they concluded that Michael was actually not suffering from Bell’s Palsy nor GBS but instead had suffered an overdose of the Vincristine (a chemo drug), which damaged almost all of Michael’s nerves from his face to his lower extremities. Hearing the results shocked all of us.
As of this writing, Michael is now able to walk with the help of a walker. Latest MRI shows some lymph nodes on his right neck which will undergo biopsy tomorrow. Despite all these things happening in our lives with our senior citizen mother, Michael doesn’t stop asking our Lord Jesus to heal him and do continuous miracles for him.
We are asking for continued healing prayers through God’s name for our younger brother Michael and financial support for his upcoming procedures and medications. You may call us directly at 0932-858-2468 George or EPCALM Miss Ces Anore 0932-854-8459. Please pray for Michael Angelo and our family in our battle against Leukemia.
I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to Dr.Oliver Cabanag and his wife for leading us to Dra.Erlyn Demerre the EPCALM Founder and to all Epcalm representatives/workers who visited us here in NKTI and tirelessly giving us encouragement against this illness. God Bless you all!
– George Go, brother
Postscript: Michael joined our Maker last August 2015.
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