This horrible journey started the week of October 21st. Nolan started complaining that he wasn't feeling well. His head and stomach was hurting him, so we thought maybe he had strep throat since those are similar symptoms for him. We brought him to urgent care on Thursday, October 24th, and he had a strep test and stomach X-ray completed. The strep test came back negative and the X-ray showed that he was very constipated. We brought him home only to find out his symptoms were getting worse. He started vomiting, had sever headaches, and stomach aches. We then brought him to the Dr. on Tuesday, October 29th. His Dr. completed many different labs to figure out what was going on. The blood work all came back normal, except the white blood count came back elevated, but nothing too alarming with those results. At that point, we thought for sure some type of Lyme or tick disease. As we waited for those results, we started him on antibiotics. In the meantime, his symptoms got worse. After talking with his nurse a few times, they told us to follow our parenting instincts and to possibly check him into the ER at Children's for complete scans. Thank God they gave us that advice!
We headed over to Children's Hospital in St. Paul the evening of October 31st, in which this terrible story begins. After we got checked into the ER, they completed a CT scan and found a mass in his sinus area, so they told us we would be staying overnight for more test to figure out what the mass is. On Friday, November 1st they completed an MRI and told us it was a tumor in his Sphenoid sinus area, and we would be admitted to the Oncology department at Children's in Minneapolis to figure out more information about the tumor (malignant or benign). We were devastated and so scared! That evening he was transported by ambulance (because he was so sick) to the other Children's hospital.
Once we were checked in at the Oncology department, they completed many other test. On Saturday, November 2nd they completed another CT scan of his head and entire body. The scan didn't show any other signs of mass/tumors in his little body. Thank God for that!! We then had to wait and wait until we could get him scheduled for surgery and figure out what we are dealing with.
The surgery/biopsy took place on Monday, November 4th. We found out those results on Tuesday, November 5th. The biopsy revealed the worse results!! We were told our little boy has cancer!!! Devastating news for everyone. He has Rhabdomyosarcoma in the Sphenoid sinus. The mass ate away some of his bone area that separates that sinus area from his brain. Thank God this is a slow growing mass and it isn't in his brain yet! He also had a PET scan completed on Wednesday, November 6th, which didn't show any other signs of cancer in his body. Thank God for that as well! We were also told that he has the better type which is Embryonal.
We learned about our treatment plans and what to expect in the coming days. We are so overwhelmed. Nolan will need Radiation and Chemo to fight this cancer. He will also need a fertility preservation completed at Mayo clinic, in the hopes that he can have children someday! Please pray for our sweet Nolan! Pray for complete healing, minimal side effects, speedy recovery, his fertility, strength, peace, and love through this horrible journey we are facing. We know that God has a plan for our Nolan and we will trust in HIS plan.
Thank you all so much for your love, support, prayers and thoughts. They mean the world to us!