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, September 13, 2010

Monday, September 13

This morning I found out that one of the infections Collin has is a urinary tract infection called pseudomonas, which is probably the one that caused the high fever and rigors Saturday morning. One of the broad spectrum antibiotics, Cefepime, will treat it, but it also requires another antibiotic, Ciprofoxacin, aka Cipro. The other infection is strep veridans, which the other broad spectrum antibiotic Vancomycin is treating. Because this is not the first UTI Collin has had, a renal ultrasound was done today to make sure there is no blockage or other anatomical reason for the UTIs. Luckily the ultrasound was normal. An echocardiogram was also scheduled for this afternoon to take a look at Collin's cardiac function in preparation for his final round of chemo and stem cell rescue. Collin was great for both the renal ultrasound and the EKG; he layed still and cooperated for both tests. He really is a trooper! The EKG showed no problems with his heart. Between the two tests, and a PT session where Collin worked very hard walking and going up and down steps, the day was very tiring; poor Collin was overtired tonight and took a while to settle enough to go to sleep. Hopefully he will get a good nights sleep tonight-he definitely needs it!

If all goes well, it looks like we may be discharged by the end of this week. It will be nice to have a little more time at home before the final round; it looks like Collin will be admitted for that on October 4...

1 comment:

TeshaSeptember 13, 2010 at 10:18 PM
Hang in there!!
ReplyDelete
Replies

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

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.