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Cal’s Story

Site created on November 20, 2020

Cal came into our lives on Love you 10/20/17 We were so happy! It has been a whirlwind ever since. We never knew we could love someone so much. Cal is an active happy and full of life little boy.
Cal is the light of his Mother's (Samantha) and Father’s (AJ) and Grandmother’s (Becky) lives. He is the sweetest little boy you'll ever meet. He loves toy cars, helicopters, airplanes and the color red. His favorite pastime is flushing his toy cars down the toilet.

Here’s where things start to go wrong.
About 2 weeks ago, Cal was throwing up and the school nurse from Roosevelt called and said his oxygen was low. They said he needed to get picked up and in order for him to return to school he had to get a covid test. I took him to wellnow urgent care to get tested and it came back negative. On Wednesday he went back to school and the school nurse called again and said he was wheezing and had low oxygen again. I asked if he needed to be picked up and they said no. But she did say to make an appointment with his primary doctor. We called his primary and they said to take him straight to the emergency room. I was insistent that he go to Strong, that is where he was born and I know they have an excellent pediatric unit.
During the last couple weeks many things have happened. His upper left lung collapsed, he has been tested for everything, he has had multiple surgeries and biopsies.

It took an entire week for the results of all the tests to come back. If anyone has ever been in this situation, a week seems like an eternity. They finally came in and it was the worst we could have hoped for.

Cal has Pleuropulmonary Blastoma, type 3.
This kind of cancer is very rare, so statistics are difficult to determine.
Every child handles it differently as they all are genetically different and they will be doing tests to determine where Cal fits with that.

https://www.childrensmn.org/educationmaterials/childrensmn/article/17463/pleuropulmonary-blastoma/

Over all, their best guess is that Cal has a 50 percent chance of living until 8 years old.
However, Cal is a FIGHTER!
He can beat this!
Cal is strong. The doctors are going to do everything they can and together they will beat this.
Please pray for Cal, and Sam and AJ, Becky while they live through this nightmare.

We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. #CalsPals

Newest Update

Journal entry by Erica Puff — Feb 3, 2021

Update from Boston.

The doctors are going to be taking Cals pleura, which is the lining of his heart and lung.

As well as his left diaphragm- a mussel that helps you breath.

As well as his thymus gland- The thymus gland, a part of your immune system situated in the upper chest beneath the breastbone, may trigger or maintain the production of antibodies that result in the muscle weakness.

And his Lymph nodes- A small bean-shaped structure that is part of the body's immune system. Lymph nodes filter substances that travel through the lymphatic fluid, and they contain lymphocytes (white blood cells) that help the body fight infection and disease. There are hundreds of lymph nodes found throughout the body.

And they are also taking his top left rib.

And His entire left lung.

We’re about to be coming back to NY tonight and then we will be coming back before Sunday @ 5:30pm. We have to be at the hospital by 6 am Monday.

His surgery will be 9-15 hours long and they will call every 90 minutes

Read More of the journal titled "February 03, 2021"

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