Tyler Rigler

First post: Nov 12, 2017 Latest post: Mar 23, 2019
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At the end of September Tyler started having some weird urinary issues.  Over the next couple of weeks things got a little worse.  The medicine that he was given wasn't working and he started having some back  pain.  We honestly thought that Tyler had a kidney stone.  During the night of October 14, 2017 Tyler's pain got so bad that I brought him to the Emergency Room.  They did blood work and a Cat Scan.  The results were the most devastating news any parent could get.  Tyler had a mass in his pelvic area.  The original diagnosis leaned towards Lymphoma.  We couldn't believe it.  Over that next week we spoke with an oncologist at Christiana and got him a biopsy.  One long week later we had our first appointment with the oncologist.  She told us that the cancer was not Lymphoma but the slides had to be sent to the Mayo Clinic to determine what it was.  That same day he had more blood work and another Cat Scan.  At that time it did not appear that it had spread.  After another agonizing four days we finally found out that he has a Rhabdomyosarcoma.  It is a soft tissue pediatric cancer.  They are the most common soft tissue cancer and the one Tyler has is aggressive. 

 

We were then  told that we should get him seen at AI DuPont Hospital.  Due to his age they have to get administrative approval to be seen there but we were told that is where he belongs.  We were lucky enough to get him in and be seen that next week.  Our doctor is Dr. Walter but the entire team is fantastic!!  We met with him, a social worker and a nurse.  He looked over all of Tyler's results and told us that he will have chemo therapy for about a year, radiation therapy and surgery at some point.  He sent Tyler for a PET Scan also.  He told us that after that appointment Tyler would be admitted to the hospital the following week to have some more procedures including a chemo port insertion, bone marrow biopsy and another lymph node biopsy.  He also had more blood work.  They admit all kids for their first round of chemo to ensure all goes well in a controlled setting.  Everything in the pediatric world happens very fast and they wanted to get his chemo started as soon as possible.  Our heads were just spinning with so much information.  We knew at that point we were where he needs to be!!!

Please keep Tyler and all of us in your prayers as we fight this beast.  We will win!!!!

 

 

 

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