Thomas ’s Story

Site created on August 21, 2011

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We've created it to keep family and friends updated about our son Thomas. Visit the website to read the latest journal entries, visit the photo gallery, and write us a note in our guestbook, or if you wish send us a private message to our email.



Thomas is the youngest of our five children, and was born a healthy baby. He did have a lot of ear infections in his first year, and when he was a year and a half, he had tubes put in his ears. About a month later, he developed a lump in his neck and we took him to the family doctor, who suggested we see the ENT(ear-nose-throat) doctor who put the tubes in his ears, thinking it was perhaps a drainage issue. He was put on a dose of antibiotics and the lump disappeared. In August 2009, he woke up one day with several lumps in his neck and we were not really concerned and skipped the family doctor and made an appointment to see the ENT again. He again was put on a dose of antibiotics. After 10 days however, the lumps grew in size and so a biopsy was ordered. The same ENT did the biopsy and told us to expect to hear something within a few weeks time. We got a call 2 days later to come in and on November 18, 2009 the devastating news was delivered, our son Thomas had neuroblastoma. It was a complete shock, as he was a healthy and energetic 2 year old and had no symptoms of something being wrong. A couple of days later, we had an appointment at McMaster, which turned into our first admittance and our life with cancer began. He has endured six cycles of chemo, surgery, stem cell transplant and radiation, as well as 4 cycles of immunotherapy. While on his last treatment of immunotherapy he suffered a cardiac arrest, and thankfully he made a full recovery. This treatment ended in December of 2010 and we have been NED (no evidence of disease) for 8 months!

Newest Update

Journal entry by Ingrid Jansema

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..." - Ecclesiastes 3

Always the best news to hear that once again Tommy's scans show no cancer! It has been two years that there is no evidence of disease, we can't hardly believe it ourselves. We have reached the point where instead of going every three months for scans, we go every six months. They also feel that although initially very concerned about the urine, he has remained in this 'high zone' for a year now, and so maybe these are just his readings, no one really knows for sure. So rather than checking this monthly, we will do it when we are there for scans. We are thankful for reaching these milestones. There are still things that we have to deal with regarding his health, but that seems to be part of the package. Overall he is doing very well.

He turned six this month which was great reason for celebration! There was a time when we didn't know if we would see his next birthday, so when the time comes we stand in complete thankfulness to God granting him life that we are able to enjoy! He had a party with his friends and had so much fun. He is loving kindergarten and loves the social part that comes with it. So many blessings for which we give thanks to our Heavenly Father. This will probably be our last post, unless something dramatically changes with regards to Tommy's health.

Jake and Ingrid

 

 

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