In March 2021, Braxton was in wrestling practice when he injured his right knee. We were sent to see a sports doctor to find out the extent of his injury. The doctor ordered an MRI to see if he tore any ligaments in his knee. The MRI showed two concerning things. One was a blocked artery that ran down his leg and the other was a "white cloud" on his tibia by his growth plate. When the doctor was explaining the findings of the MRI is when we heard the news about the possibility of cancer. At this time, the doctor said lets wait and see what the next MRI would show in 6 weeks. The hope was that the "white cloud" was just a bone bruise from him hitting his knee on the ground.

 

Six weeks went by and we had another MRI, which showed that the concerning spot was still there. We were then sent to the Oncologist who recommended a biopsy. During this time, Braxton also had to see a vascular surgeon to have surgery to repair/replace the blocked artery in his leg. He had surgery in June 2021.

 

The surgery went well but the results of the biopsy came back confirming cancer, follicular lymphoma. The type of cancer Braxton had was rare for kids to have. It is normally found in older adults. Because of this, Spectrum felt like this was out of their scope and referred us out to Mayo in Rochester, MN.

 

Braxton, his dad and I made plans to head out to Rochester and drove out there mid July 2021. We were there for two weeks staying in a hotel right next to the clinic. We met with a bunch of doctors, social workers and nurses. A battery of tests were performed and the doctors agreed we needed to start radiation. Braxton needed to go through a total of 20 treatments during a 4 week time period. During this time, I tried to work as much as I could but due to the sporadic nature of all of his appointments it made it virtually impossible for me to work during this time. Luckily, I had enough PTO to cover me during this time.

 

Braxton completed his 20 treatments and we were thankfully sent home with the plan to come back to Rochester 3 months after treatment to get bloodwork and scans again done to make sure the treatment worked and to make sure there wasn't any more cancer in his body. So in November 2021, we flew back out to Rochester and were there only a few days. When flying back on Wednesday 10th, we got a call from the oncologist from Mayo that the PET scan showed cancer activity now in Braxton's left tibia. This was heartbreaking as we were told that he was in remission.

 

So this process starts all over again. More scans and biopsies! On December 1st, Braxton went in to get his biopsy done on his left leg and it confirmed the same type of cancer. So now we are waiting to hear from Mayo again to find out what course of treatment they recommend. There are a lot of unanswered questions and things seem to be in chaos. Will he need to go through radiation again or are they going to recommend chemo? Will I be able to work, probably not. How will we be able to afford this?