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.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Monday, August 23

Collin remained fever free all weekend in the hospital. On Sunday afternoon, the doctors explained that his white blood cell count had increased from 13.5 on Friday to 20.8 on Saturday without the help of Neupogen (the last dose of which had been given Thursday night), which meant there had been an infection of some sort that caused the fever Friday night. By Sunday his count was back down to a more normal 6.1 (normal is between 4 and 10), which meant the antibiotics had helped fight the infection. All of the cultures remained negative almost 48 hours later, so they decided we could go home Sunday evening as long as we kept a close eye on Collin's temp, and called if the fever returned. So after dinner Sunday, we came home once again.

Today I got the hospital stuff re-organized, straightened up the house a bit, and caught up on laundry-all the things I hadn't quite had the chance to finish before going back to the hospital on Friday night. Tomorrow Collin has another hearing test. Based on the results, Collin's oncologist will decide what the next round of chemo will be.

1 comment:

AlexxAugust 24, 2010 at 4:15 AM
So glad to hear you are home! Surely you are glad to blog it. :) I am curious how the hearing test determines the next round of chemo? (And when is it supposed to start?)
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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.