Novenber 24, 2017

Nathan had some great months in between my last update, he got back on the ice for Sled hockey, Dr pulled his line so he could attend classes with his friends; all was going well, slow but well as it should be for a now 16 year old who has battled cancer for 7 years/3 times and 2 different types of cancers; one would have thought that was the way it should happen, after all that including a Haplo BMT, and a successful one at that with 100% donor(Dad) cells, you’d think whewww it’s over, road to recovery; nice and easy does it and let that kiddo live some life as he should…

Not how it happens in the real world, the world of childhood cancer tends to throw more curve balls then a game of baseball. Nathan’s labs fell pretty suddenly 3 weeks, oppps now 4 weeks ago and naturally everything was going to plan with him and his Haplo, no one expected a relapse; Nathan had all the indicators of no relapse except the labs, he has all donor cells, active GvHD of several forms, and the last BMB there was 0 blasts seen; so as it went Nathan’s labs were not making a come back, so of course a BMB was scheduled and as it would turn out…

Nathan’s t-MDS/Leukemia has made itself known again…

As we looked at our 7 year anniversary in all this, original admission/dx Nov 18, 2010 and Nathan receiving his very first dose chemo on Nov 25, 2010 (was Thanksgiving Day then) we were hearing those words again. words no one, not anyone should have to hear one time let alone now for the 4th “YOUR SON HAS CANCER”  heartbroken, devastated, and NUMB is just a few feelings you have when you hear those words, some get angry, I honestly just don’t have the energy right now for anger nor much else for that matter right now.

Nathan’s situation is rare and unique, of course it couldn’t just be a easy fix, it’s very complicated, we are waiting for test result that are still out on the marrow right now with hopes that he don’t have all the markers he had prior to complicate things even more, there’s not really a treatment out there for Nathan, the transplant was his chance for a cure, but unfortunately the chemo in the process didn’t work well enough and sleeper cells were able to hide away. Nathan is not fully recovered from the transplant yet so his marrow is still in a weak state, which may cause some difficulties. We don’t have a plan of action yet as said above we need to get all the results back from his biopsies first…

I’ve written this post and posted/removed it many times in these past few days, but it’s just not changing the fact that Nathan, more then any other time is truly in the fight for his life. I’m asking you to please keep Nathan in prayers, he needs a miracle and I have to say I do believe in Miracles…

Thank you so much and God Bless!!!!

Nathan’s Mom, Dad and Brother