Photo: Shaffer, Kylie
Hi, my name is Lorena Melott, and I’m setting up this go fund me for my little brother John Melott and his medical expenses.
On Wednesday, January 19th, our Mother took John to the Emergency Room in Frisco, CO. She had noticed his foot/ankle looked swollen. He was previously sick with Covid (positive results on Dec. 26th) and had not really gotten over the head cold, and he just thought it was lingering. Little did we know we were heading into very scary territory… St. Anthony’s in Frisco had found that John’s blood count was very low. His White Blood Count (WBC) was below 1, Platelets (PLT) were at 13 and Hemoglobin (HGB) was below 5. They also told us that he had all of the symptoms of Leukemia with these low numbers. John was rushed to St. Anthony’s in Lakewood for a blood/PLT transfusion and bone marrow test for cancer. As we waited and took turns to sit with him, we watched his body slowly decline. His PLT was up to 44 on day one after the transfusion; however, it went down every day, and his WBC stayed relatively flat, around (1.2 - 1.8). All of his counts went lower every day, and his PLT had fallen back down to 20 on Monday, January 24th. This called for another PLT transfusion.
The bone marrow results finally came back on Monday, January 24th, and there was no evidence of cancer! This was GREAT news! However, they’re not too sure what happened, and so they’re calling it Immune-Mediated Pancytopenia, and that may be what is causing his body to do this to itself. It could also be secondary to Covid. As of today, Tuesday, January 25th, they have started John on steroids for the next four days, and we’re praying that the steroids will kill whatever is causing him to lose WBC and PLT. This morning his PLT was at 40 (this went up from yesterday when it was at 20), and I hope it continues to increase. The WBC went down to 0.7 today; not sure what is going on there.
John is 28 years old and is very healthy and athletic in general. He enjoys going to the gym, hanging out with friends, listening to music, watching sports, and being outdoors. He was born and raised in Summit County. My entire family has lived here for over 20 years. All three of us (Lorena, George and John) graduated from Summit High School. John played with the Summit Snow Tigers, Summit Tigers football and was an All-Star baseball player when younger and growing up in Summit County. John is now a devoted Dad to his 3-year-old son Nico and loves spending time with him going to the park, playing outside, cooking good food and just hanging out. John works for All Phases Plumbing.