My name is Mike Millan. I was born on June 29, 1986 and I am currently 31 years old. My wife’s name is Ashley and we have two handsome sons Reece (4) and Ryker (2). We have been married since 2012 and have gone through some amazing challenges thus far. My hobbies include skateboarding, working on my custom truck, teaching my sons how to be gentlemen and spending time with my close friends and family. I consider myself an active person and always am finding things to do or stuff to work on. Please enjoy this site as I open up and share my life with you. Enjoy.
In December of 2015, after a series of medical events, I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia or commonly known as CML. CML is a slowly progressing and uncommon type of blood-cell cancer that begins in the bone marrow. The doctors first told me that it is most common in adults over the age of 60 and that for me to develop this at 29 was only by fluke coincidence. CML is not hereditary and the basic explanation is that one day one cell decided to stop doing its job correctly. Read more about the events leading up to diagnosis in the “The Journey Begins” blog post.
Each human cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes. Most cases of CML start when a “swapping” of chromosomal material (DNA) occurs between chromosomes 9 and 22 during cell division. Part of chromosome 9 goes to 22 and part of 22 goes to 9. This is known as a translocation and gives rise to a chromosome 22 that is shorter than normal. This new abnormal chromosome is known as the Philadelphia chromosome. The Philadelphia chromosome is found in the leukemia cells of almost all patients with CML.
The swapping of DNA between the chromosomes leads to the formation of a new gene (an oncogene) called BCR-ABL. This gene then produces the BCR-ABL protein, which is the type of protein called a tyrosine kinase. This protein causes CML cells to grow and reproduce out of control.
-www.cancer.org
I couldn’t have asked for any better doctors throughout the past few years. I have been to numerous cancer treatment centers including: Palo Verde Cancer Center, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center all within the Phoenix area. All these doctors have worked together throughout the years trying to combat this disease in every which way possible without causing long term damage to my body. Typically CML can be treated by “Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI) Antineoplastic agent, a pill form of chemotherapy, that act as a “puzzle piece” that would fill in the gaps or holes in the marrow. Typically after failure of 3 TKI drugs they resort to Stem Cell Transplant. In my case I was on 5 TKI drugs that failed to help and only caused major side effects including severe mouth sores and neutropenia. The TKI medications I used included: Hydroxyurea, Dasatinib, Imatinib, Nilotinib and Bosutinib. It was then my oncologist at Mayo Clinic decided that my body rejected all the typical treatment methods and it was best that we move to transplant.
I created this webpage for one specific reason, to help someone who is going through this type of disease or something similar to it find comfort in knowing that everything can work out. From day one my grandma Trini, a breast cancer survivor, told me that I could not be afraid of this cancer. The moment you become scared you give up hope in yourself. You can be stronger than this and beat cancer the way I did. I know that CML is not the most severe form of cancer, but I had too much going for me in this wonderful life to just give up and feel sorry for myself. If you find yourself needing someone to talk to please contact me and feel free to ask any questions at all about this experience.
Lastly, I urge everyone that I know, those who ask how they can help, those who care about me most, to please register into the bone marrow registry in hopes that one day you may be able to save someones life in the way mine was saved.
Visit Be The Match and register today!!
Mike's Journey 