Hi, this page is all about Skyler. He was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma stage 4 High Risk on Oct. 26th 2004. Just before his 3rd birthday. He had his 4th birthday on Dec. 29th 2005. He has currently had 6 cycles of chemotherapy, Surgery was on Thursday Feb. 24th '05. They successfuly removed the entire tumor, however there are still lymph nodes left. He underwent 4 straight days of chemotherapy and 2 days of rest. He had his autologous stem cell transplant on May 4th '05. He also caught the Adenovirus post transplant. He received two rounds of treatments for this virus and received a total of 18 doses of Cidovior. Skyler finished up his 12 Radation treatments in Sept. '05. He has been a real trooper through this whole ordeal. Skyler has always been a healthy, very active little boy. He's never been sick before this not even an earache. We noticed a large lump on his left side on a Thursday and by Sunday it had gotten larger and we knew it was something serious. I took him to the Dr. that Monday where she said that there was something def. wrong. So we went to St. Mary's hospital to have an ultrasound done. There was clearly a large tumor on his left kidney. Here we are 14 weeks pregnant(Sophie was born April 8th '05) scared to death and not expecting any of this. Skyler is still just as happy and active as little boys are. We were directed to take Skyler to MCV's ER. Where we were for 3 days intil they had a room upstairs for us. We were told he had Wilm's tumor and it would be removed the following day. Just minutes before they came to get him for surgery we were told there were some questionable lymph nodes. So plans were changed and they did a biopsy. After 8 looooong and unbearable days we were finally told he had Neuroblastoma stage 4 High Risk. He had a tumor the size of a softball in his adrenal gland on top of his left kidney. His bone marrow was completly infested, but he showed no signs of this. The first cycle of chemo hit him really hard. We were in the hospital for a month before he was finally released to go home. Once home it was strange being at home again because it didn't feel like home anymore. Our "Normal" was no longer. Skyler flew through his next 3 cycles of chemo quite well. His 5th cycle of chemo hit him very hard as well. He did great with his surgery, he was able to keep his kidney. He was out of the hospital in record time. The surgeons were truly amazed at his recovery. He had another cycle of chemo and had about 6 weeks of rest before his stem cell transplant. His transplant so far has been very successful. He did battle with the Adenovirus for atleast 6 weeks..maybe longer. But, he is very strong willed child!! He finished his 12 days of Radiation treatment in Sept. His baby vaccinations were wiped out due to his transplant and he's now in the process of getting those all over again. He's currently declared NED (no evidence of disease)He has almost finished his 6 months of Accuntane. The end of his protocol is in the very near future.




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Wednesday, October 1, 2008 11:31 AM CDT

Update on Skyler....please keep him in your prayers.....
Okay so most of my close friends already know what's kinda going on with Skyler. For those of you who don't I thought I would write this to fill everybody in. Skyler had brain surgery June 16th 2007 and thats why he has all this hardware in his head.

So, Skyler and I had a fun trip to the Emergency room Thursday night. I noticed a piece of metal sticking through his scalp...also noticed his skull didn't feel quite right either. So, being me I freaked and took him to the ER. Which, now I'm glad I did. So, after X-rays and a CT scan we found out that he has several screws loose. Ha Ha funny I know. The piece of metal was actually one of the screws working its way out. That one was easy to pluck out since about half of it was showing. So, they sent us home and we made an appointment to see his Neurosurgeon....

Monday, we got to see Dr. Tye the local neurosurgeon. Amazing guy with amazing bedside manner. :) So, this is where we are at now sitting between a rock and a hard place. Dr. Tye reviewed the scans with me...which I had already seen for myself in the ER. He said there are atleast 3 more loose screws. However, surgery isn't an option now due to Skyler's scalp being soooo paper thin from all the radiation he received last year. He said we could do it now and remove all the hardware however he would have an extremally hard time healing. He also said if he went in now it was basically opening a can of worms. No good. However, waiting is no good either. He's hoping that the other screws will work their way out like that one did. It will avoid surgery but does have a good chance of infection. No matter how we look at this it's a very high risk of infection. So, please keep my sweet, precious baby boy in your thoughts and prayers. He's an amazing kid and truly a trooper. He's such a miracle to me and everybody else he meets.



Thank you sooo much!! I honestly don't know where I would be without my friends and family.
THANK YOU!!

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E-mail Author: Skylermom01@Yahoo.com