Christian’s Story

Site created on March 22, 2020


Welcome to our Caring Bridge website. We are hoping that this site will help us keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support, prayers, and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. ~Love, The Caley's 



Our son, Christian Caley, is 18 years old college freshman. On February 5th, 2020 he went in for a tonsillectomy. For almost a year he had been developing frequent infections and a growth on his left tonsil. Due to the size and fragility of the mass on his tonsil, the surgeon decided that it should be biopsied. The following Monday, February 10th, his family received the call that the biopsy results were positive for not one but two types of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. They would learn that Christian has both Follicular and Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma. Follicular lymphoma is a form of cancer most common in patients over 60. Children 18 and under with this form of cancer make up less than 2% of pediatric NH lymphoma cases. Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma is a more common and more aggressive form of cancer in children but the two together are very rare. 

Within a week of diagnosis, Christian had a PET scan, bone marrow biopsy, and heart echo. Due to the aggressive nature of this type of cancer, he has begun R CHOP chemotherapy treatments at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes in St. Louis. 

Newest Update

Journal entry by Dana Caley

Hello friends and family. Its been much longer than we planned for this update but things have been a little bit wonky. The last 4 weeks have been very tuff on everyone in our home and I'm sure for many in the world. After the last two courses of chemotherapy Christian had a hard time with jitteriness, anxiety, and depression. At times the circumstances have seemed like a looming cloud over all of us and especially Christian. We have had moments of peace, joy, but also many times of anxiety about the future. We are so thankful for the many prayers and kind thoughts and words people have shared, they have been a source of much comfort and hope. Many donated to the go-fund me campaign, and that helped immensely, we are so thankful for the support. Through all of the support, Christian shared with us that he feels very loved and the greatest hope we can have for our children and for each other is that we feel how loved we truly are. We know Christian is truly loved and cancer can't touch that part of his being and we are thankful for that. Christian was receiving high doses of prednisone following the chemo and he has chosen not to take it because of the severe side effects on him. This Thursday will be his last treatment which we are very excited about. I am hoping when his hair comes back, it might be curly, I think a natural perm would look good on him:) After the last treatment, we will return to Barnes for a pet scan which we hope will show cancer has been destroyed. That is our hope and prayer. These last months have been hard for all of us and our hopes and prayers go out to you as your's goes out to us. We are thankful for you and your concern for us and look forward to more updates to come. This seems more like a letter between close friends than a random update. Please feel free to let us know if we can do anything for you also if you need prayers, you have them, if its just kind thoughts we can do that too. Whichever way life takes us we are in this together so let us all rest in the fact that we are loved.
Love
Andy 








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