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Dillan’s Story

Site created on June 6, 2018

This was our initial entry in May and the following updates as we got them, can be read in the journal entries.

Thank you for visiting our site in order to stay updated. We knew we had a big family and a lot of friends, but wow! During times like these, its nicely overwhelming to realize just how many people we are blessed to be supported by! Keeping everyone updated though, has become quite the task! Hopefully this will help us cut down on all the phone calls, text messages, e-mails and all the different facebook pages that have been private so far.

So Dillan went to an appointment on May 14th to check on some stomach pain that he thought may have been a hernia or something. He had noticed some inconsistent pains that he didn't think was anything to worry about. He decided to go have it checked out when it became more noticeable, with some swelling and vomiting. They sent him that day for a CT scan showing a large mass on his kidney (more than double the size of the kidney itself) and spots on his liver. We were referred to Dr. Figenshau at Barnes to remove the kidney. In order to not delay the surgery, they were going to skip the biopsy upfront, since the results would not change the fact that the kidney needed removed. Dillan's case was then presented at a conference and between all of the surgeons and specialists involved, they decided that chemotherapy would be needed upfront to shrink the mass before surgery. Otherwise, due to the size of the mass, the risk of causing damage to the surrounding organs during surgery would be too high. With the change of plans, it was now necessary to do the biopsy upfront in order to determine the treatment plan for chemo. Because there are several different types of cancer, there are also several different types of chemo. As of right now, we are waiting for the next appointment with the oncologist, Dr. Hsieh (pronounced Shay) on June 14th.

That was the super short version of the story which excluded some appointments, numerous phone calls and seemingly countless changes along the way. Dr. Figenshau is obviously unable to give us any of the answers that we are waiting on from Dr. Hsieh, but his guess is that it may be 1-3 months before surgery. In the meantime, we are staying hopeful and positive. As I've told several friends and family, even though he obviously isn't feeling too well and is pretty uncomfortable, he is grabbing the bull by the horns and telling it who's boss! That's who he is and that's what he does! We are going to be done with all of this as soon as possible because he is impatiently ready to get back to work!

As mom, I am doing my best to keep the ball rolling and update as I go. We will post as we have information to give and when we are ready to share. He gets a lot of messages, so just wanted everyone to know that he appreciates the concern and support. Please don't get offended if he does not answer calls or reply right away. We have had so much support so far and so many with questions and asking if we need anything. We will not hesitate to let anyone know if there is something we need. In order to make all of our notifications less overwhelming to keep up with, we ask that you please use this site for comments, questions and support. We originally thought that this would be a quick story that would only take up about 2 weeks of our lives. Since things keep changing, regardless of how long it actually ends up taking.. THIS IS BEATABLE! Anyone that knows him, knows that he is pretty tough and he's going to give it a good kick in the ...!!

Newest Update

Journal entry by Kelly Beaston — Oct 18, 2019

I would have to say that hearing the word “benign” is probably the most lifting word that I could possibly ever hear!! A year and half ago.. when it all began as what he thought might have been a hernia.. wow, here we are!

Last year Dillan spent the entire summer going through chemo and spent a whole lot of time bed bound. He talked me into taking him to a reptile store and came home with an iguana. Later that night I woke up from a sound sleep with nightmares and ridiculous anxiety. I had just realized what a bad idea bringing a germ infested reptile home was while he was so sick!! Germs, salmonella, cancer.. not a good combination!!! What were we thinking?!?! Obviously we weren’t!! The situation ended up resolving itself when he opened up the terrarium and the 2 inch long, feisty little sucker leaped out, ran across the garage and into the street. One of Dillan’s best friends.. (Paul, u know who u are.. 😆) ran after it and was flailing around in the middle of the street looking like a complete idiot trying to catch this thing that no one could see but him!! Sorry Paul, but I really hope the neighbors saw this go down!! 🤣🤣🤣 He DID catch it!! But.. it ended up getting away again and my iguana dreams were no longer waking me up in the middle of the night! So a memory was created and now, any time any anxiety arises, we call it iguana dreams. Haha!!!

When Dillan got the news today, that EVERYTHING has come back clear.. (and that he just has his routine checks over the the next 2 years to make sure nothing takes off and grows into anything) In Dillan fashion, he says, “see mom.. I told you there was nothing to worry about!” Nope.. no iguana dreams tonight!! ❤️❤️❤️

Read More of the journal titled "Biopsy results"

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