Madisen Rodriguez Madisen's Relapse Journey

Welcome to our Caring Bridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your prayers, support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


Madisen is our middle child.  She is one of the most positive people around.  She loves to laugh, smile, try different makeup looks, looking at fashion websites, being with family and friends and she loves Jesus as her Lord and Savior. 
 
Madisen was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in July 2014.  She was a stage 2 at the time.  She went through 4 rounds of chemo and a series of radiation treatments.  After these treatments she was declared to be in remission.  The doctors had told us the cure rate for Hodgkin's was 95%.  They felt confident that Madisen was in that group.  She had a CT scan in November 2015 that showed no return of the disease.  


Her next re-check was in June 2016. She had a chest x ray that showed some type of enlarged node so she was scheduled for a CT and PET scan.  The scans showed extensive lesions of Hodgkin's lymphoma  throughout.  She was now in stage 4.  The doctors told us that when cancer relapses it comes back smarter and more resistant to treatment especially treatment that was used previously.   We were informed originally that she was to have 4 rounds of chemo, an auto stem cell transplant (where they use her own stem cells), radiation,  a splenectomy, then shots once every 3 weeks for a total of 15 shots.   Madisen had 2 rounds of chemo then a repeat PET an CT scan.  The scans came back clear! The cancerous lesions seen before were gone!  The doctors told us they did not expect to see this kind of result especially considering how extensive it was originally.  We considered this our first miracle and knew that God had answered all the prayers that were being said for her.  After the completion of the 4th round of chemo in September, the doctors told us that after getting opinions from Hodgkin's specialists around the nation and considering how well she has responded to the chemotherapy, she did not need to have radiation and a splenectomy.  Our second miracle!  The plan now is to have the auto stem cell transplant then receive the chemo shots once every 3 weeks for a total of 15 shots.  She will go into Seattle Children's hospital on October 7th to start her stem cell transplant.