Our Little Princey Fellow - Collin Cureageous

When Collin was born, his sister called him her "princey fellow." Collin was diagnosed with High Risk Metastatic Medulloblastoma (a brain tumor that had spread to his spine) on 4/22/10 at 16 months of age. He has had brain surgery, high dose chemo, an autologous stem-cell rescue, maintenance chemo, a phase II trial, more chemo, and radiation to his brain and spine. He has relapsed twice, but is fighting with such strength and courage, we have more recently dubbed him Collin Cureageous.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sunday, May 23

Chemo Round 1, Day 9

Last night was a very quiet, uneventful night, and Collin and I both got some good sleep. Today was a quiet day, or as it's called in the world of chemo, boring. Boring days are good days. Collin had occasional episodes of vomiting, but had a lot of rest as well.

He enjoyed playing for a little while; he threw the ball to his sister, enjoyed petting and squeezing a small stuffed dog, and watching some of his favorite music videos on the iPhone again. And again, it looked like he tried to make a bark during his favorite Wishbone video. He seems peaceful and pain free, which is a great thing to see! Tomorrow is Monday, so it will be a busy day!

2 comments:

TeshaMay 24, 2010 at 9:41 PM
Hi jenn,

I'm glad he had a "boring day". You could probably use some of those!! I'm so glad you're blogging about whats going on! We're praying and our church is praying for you as well!
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Jenn K.May 26, 2010 at 8:50 PM
Thank you Tesha!!
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I am the proud mom of 2 wonderful kids, Neya (born in 2004) and Collin (born in 2008). When Collin was born, Neya loved princesses, and called her baby brother her "princey fellow." As a mom, my greatest fear in life is something happening to one of my children. My fear was realized when my sweet 16 month old son was diagnosed with cancer in April of 2010. I have watched him go through things no child should ever experience, and I am in awe of his strength. He is my hero.

I have learned that cancer is the #1 cause of disease-related death in children under the age of 20, killing more than asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined. 46 children are diagnosed with cancer every single day. 7 children die from cancer every single day. 1 out of every 5 children diagnosed with cancer will die. There are 5 children diagnosed with cancer for every one diagnosed with pediatric AIDS, yet only $20,000 is invested in cancer research for every $595,000 invested in pediatric AIDS research. Of the National Cancer Institute's budget of $4.6 billion, breast cancer received 12%, prostate cancer received 7%, and all 12 major groups of pediatric cancer combined received less than 3%.

I started this blog as a way of keeping loved ones and friends updated on Collin. Now I also hope that his story will help raise awareness about Medulloblastoma and all childhood cancers. Awareness about childhood cancer needs to be increased so that it may some day receive the funding it deserves so that a cure can be found. Children deserve the chance to grow up and live their dreams; they shouldn't have to fight for the chance to live.

For more information on Medulloblastoma, view this document from the American Brain Tumor Association web site.