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.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I woke up this morning to find a gift from our nurse. It was a copy of Collin's labwork, and it showed his ANC is 1,215 today!! This means his immune system is coming back up. He has had no more fevers, his repeat blood cultures are negative, and his energy has improved. He has a little more interest in eating, but since the chemo kills off taste buds, nothing has much taste. The things that he will eat the most of are sausage patties, doritos, etc. because their flavors are more bold.

We just saw the doctor, and as long as Collin's ANC is at least 1,500 tomorrow, we will be able to go home! He will still need IV antibiotics for a week or two, but the nurses will teach me how to give them at home through his mediport. When Collin still had his broviac line I had to give him IV antibiotics at home more than once, so this won't be too different. It will be so nice to get home! Hopefully we can get the Christmas tree up next weekend!

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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.