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Scariest Day

Philip TransplantWe are one day away from winning $250,000 from Pepsi to fund research in to childhood cancers particularly Neuroblastoma.  Neuroblastoma is the cancer that my son beat twice. The survival rate for relapse in Neuroblastoma is very low with only about 5% making it.  We were actually told that we had to think about Philip’s ‘Quality of life’ which basically means life remaining yet that wasn’t the scariest day nor was the day he was diagnosed. Both are way up there.

The Scariest day was while he was getting his stem cell transplant.  Part of the way through his treatment they harvested stem cell from Philip and froze them for later.  At the end of the treatment to get any hidden cancer or stuff that adapted to the chemo they gave him mega dose chemo that wiped out his bone marrow.  They then gave him back his own stem cells to regrow his marrow.  During this time he had zero white blood cells and therefore no immune system.  We were in isolation with strict rules such as wiping down anything that came into the room with alcohol, hand washing, gloves, and masks.  The picture is on his first day out of isolation and is his 4th birthday in the playroom.  They reserved it just for us so we could celebrate.

One day I woke up in the room with him and a nurse comes in to tell me that there is something funny with his counts.  They do blood work every morning. Soon there is a Dr in the room telling me that his potassium is to high and they are looking into it.  Then a second  Dr who says it is way to high they must act now.  Very quickly the room is full of people the door that is supposed to be never open is wide open. Nobody is wearing a gown or a mask.  Somebody is explaining to me that too high of potassium can cause heart failure and his is way to high.  Everyone is talking way to fast and multiple emergency procedures  are happening at once. At this point I watch a nurse wheel in the crash cart.

Through all this Philip was fine wondering what was going on.  We never did find out what caused the spike.  They are sure that it was real as they ran blood work through the day and we watched it return to normal.  He survived that day and the rest of his treatment, a relapse and has been cancer free for 2.5 years and off treatment for 1.5 years.

Please go and vote at PepsiRefreash for “FUND LESS TOXIC THERAPIES FOR CHILDREN WITH CANCER Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation” There are 3 ways to vote: 1.) From your cell phone Text 73774 and enter the code 102653. You will get a confirmation text back. 2.) From your computer go to www.tinyurl.com/taypepsi 3.) Go to Facebook and search “childhood cancer foundation”. Join the page download the facebook app. Here is a link: http://tinyurl.com/armswideapp

Use all three methods to register 3 votes each day.  Voting ends Sept 30th at midnight.

Two YouTube videos to break your hearts.  The singer is only 12.  Such talent and such compassion.  Abby you have made the world a better place. Thank you.