Jace’s Story

Site created on August 3, 2020

Welcome to our CaringBridge website for Jace. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. 
**I also want to note that any donations made to caring bridge, do not come to us. They go to the caring bridge company.  If you would like to support us with a tribute, please see the Go Fund Me page under the “ways to help” tab. 

Newest Update

Journal entry by alicia Essen

Hi friends and family :) I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I posted! Wow, that went too fast, and a lot has happened! Let’s start with the best news first- Jace’s brain scans have all been clear!!😁 🎉🎉❤️ We have a MRI scheduled for next month and pray it will continue to show no indication of tumor regrowth. 
Back in June, he started a new HGH shot which is only 1x weekly, instead of daily. Total game changer! We all still hate the shot day, (almost every time Jace tries to talk me into giving it to Brooks instead 😆), but it’s working really well! He’s jumping across percentile lines and is starting to catch up to his big brother :) 
Jace also started preschool in September. He absolutely loves it. He’s the first in the house to get ready & get in the car when he has school. He loves taking his lunchbox to school for “bunch-bunch” (lunch bunch). He loves playing with his friends and learning. He’s had a ton of gains in his speech since school started too, but we are still working really hard on more sounds. He had his first Christmas program last week and he ROCKED IT! 🥇❤️ He was right up front, singing his little heart out, doing all the motions as big as he could... but occasionally taking a break to suck his thumb & twirl his hair. 😆 It was SO cute! 
I wish that was all I had to share, but unfortunately there’s more news.  On December 2nd while at the pediatrician’s office for something else, Jace’s left leg started acting funny. He was having a hard time walking, intermittently limping, and having a hard time on the stairs. Alarming to say the least. We got imaging of his hip done the next day and discovered some abnormalities. They referred us to Gillette Children’s Orthopedic. After a long 2 weeks of waiting for this evaluation, we finally got some answers today. To be honest, I don’t remember all the medical terms doc used but I can share the gist of Jace’s hip condition… so the ball on the top of his femur, at some point lost blood supply & the bone died. 🥺 Good news- it found a new blood supply & it’s now growing back. The new bone absorbs the dead bone to create the new strong bone. With this being our first visit we don’t really know how far along he is in the process, but GREAT NEWS is that he does NOT need surgery! 🎉 Unfortunately his hip is in a fragile state so we need to protect it by limiting jumping and running… super easy with a 3 year old - lol.. and there goes the trampoline the kids are getting for Christmas - LOL… no biggie though, he can still do most things. She just said no soccer, basketball, football type sports. He can do T-ball & swim & ride bikes so we’ll have plenty to keep him busy. We will see her again Feb/March and will learn more about where he’s at then. 

I think that’s about it. Jace continues to be an absolute joy… he loves fun.. he loves telling jokes… he loves to be happy… he’s a good listener… he loves his giant furry “bougie piwow”. He loves cuddles. He loves watching shows. He’s the only person in the world thar can talk me into bringing slime in the house😆. He is so sweetly apologetic when he does something to hurt you or your feelings. He thanks you for helping him accomplish any task. He loves his siblings… especially his “best friend, Brooks”. He loves imaginative play. But most of all he loves dogs. He can’t help but coo and giggle at every doggie he sees.  He is a social butterfly and loves to be in the mix of busyness. He works really hard! He’s is just so good. ❤️Thank you for loving him, praying for him and my family, and for your continuous support. We appreciate it and cherish our relationship with each one of you. We hope you all have a magical happy holiday! Xo


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