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.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 3rd 3F8 Treatment yesterday

This trip went pretty well. I've learned my way around the city, so I'm feeling more comfortable there. The routine yesterday was the same as last week: labwork in the morning, pre-meds around noon, and injection a little after 2:00 pm. Within minutes of the injection, Collin was nauseous and threw up twice. After that, he didn't throw up anymore, and before we left the hospital around 4:30 or so, he was saying he was hungry! He had some snacks and kept them down, and later he had dinner and kept that down too. Collin is pretty unsteady on his feet after the injection (even more so than usual), so when he was walking around last night in our room, it looked like he was walking on the deck of a boat. Luckily his walking seems more normal today. He was put on another 7 days of antibiotic for the c-diff because he's still having some diarrhea. This means another week of getting up and giving medicine at 2:00 am (he gets it every 6 hours, so 8:00 am, 2:00 pm, 8:00 pm, and 2:00 am.) Oh well. Here's hoping this will be the last week he'll need it. Three treatments down, two more to go!

1 comment:

Kelly RiceMarch 29, 2012 at 11:35 AM
Thinking of you and your family and sending many prayers for Collin...hope the treatments are going smooth.
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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.