(This is Graydon on his Make-A-Wish trip to Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island, Bahamas.) Welcome to Graydon's Caringbridge Web Page. It has been provided to keep people updated about Graydon and his fight with ALL. He was diagnosed Dec. 17, 2001 with B-precursor (NCI Std 3 drug induction), standard risk, No t(1:19), and was randomized to POG 9905—reg A. Thirty months later on June 24 he went off-treatment, known as OT. So far so good! I have just set up this site for Graydon. Since he is off-treatment now, I'm hoping to not have a lot of things to report.
Normal Blood Count Range
White Blood Cells (WBC): 4.0-10 Red Blood Cells (RBC): 4.50-5.50 Hemoglobin (HGB): 11.5-13.5 Hematocrit (HCT): 0.360-0.4800
Pictures of the cutest little brother anyone could ever have—my brother Luka
Last year, Graydon walked in his first Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year, he is absolutely thrilled and excited to be the walk's Honoured Hero!!! He had a photo shoot at Sick Kids with our LLS director Steve, and the picture turned out really well. Graydon will soon be starting his fundraising efforts.
Here is his fundraising letter:
I am raising money for the Light the Night walk that is in three weeks at Queen's Park. It is five km long, and we'll walk right past Sick Kids, where I know lots of people (ha, ha, ha!!). I really want to raise a lot of money for this very important cause and I'm asking you to help by making a contribution! I am asking lots of people in person, but this Walk has a way to do it online, so that's why Im sending you this. Please use the link in this email to donate online quickly & securely. That way you don't have to get any annoying phone calls from me or see me lurking at your door, or following you off the bus, or bugging you on the school grounds (like the people who don't get this email!).
You will receive email confirmation of your donation and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation.
When I sold magazine subscriptions at my school, I sold the most subsriptions than any other students two years in a row! I don't think I'll raise the most money in this walk, but I really want to be a big, BIG help for finding help and cures for leukemia. I DIDN'T GO THROUGH 900 days of chemotherapy, which included asparaginase (6 intramuscular shots into the top of the thigh), dexamethasone (9 doses by IV; 140 doses orally), intrathecal methotrexate (8 doses), leucovorin rescue (18 doses by IV; 48 doses orally, mercaptopurine (822 doses orally), methotrexate (6 doses by IV; 154 orally), vincristine (20 doses through port in chest), septra (948 doses orally), 1 initial 14-day hospitalization for diagnosis & launch of treatment , 1 surgery to place the port-a-catheter central line in my chest, 6 planned 4-day hospitalizations (for high-dose methotrexate cycles), 1 unplanned hospitalization for fever and neutropenia, 2 transfusions of blood products: red blood cells, 4 abdominal ultrasounds, 1 bladder catheterization, 250-280 blood draws (from fingers, from arm, from IV, from port), 4 bone marrow aspirations (inserting a hollow needle approx the diameter of a No. 2 pencil lead to the back crest of the pelvis bone to draw out the marrow from the internal space of the bone) to check the marrow for leukemia cells, 75+ physical exams, 1 CT scan, 3 dental exams, 2 echocardiograms, 13 lumbar punctures/spinal taps to check the spinal fluid for leukemia cells and also to inject chemo into the fluid to avert the risk of leukemia hiding in the central nervous system, 1 two-day neuropsychological assessment, 10 x-rays, 1 final surgery to remove the port-a-cath. Now I have osteopenia and some cognitive problems and learning disabilities from the chemo, BUT I CAN WALK THIS WALK!
Please, please, please sponsor me in my walk. I thank you in advance for your support, and really appreciate your generosity!!
Click here or copy and paste into your http: space:
http://www.active.com/donate/ltntor/1925_madflow
And if you can help me and the leukemia and lymphoma society even more, and without it costing you any money, please forward this email to as many people as you can, tell them you know me and encourage them to donate as well (or just tell them if you know them really well!)!
Thank you over and over! And congratulations on getting to the end of this!
If you can help seek a cure for leukemia, please pledge any amount. Graydon is walking for many, many people. Thank you! http://www.active.com/donate/ltntor/1925_madflow
This is a video made by parents on the most valuable support mail list I've found—ALL-KIDS—to show the faces of our children and the facts about childhood cancer. I've been online with the parents of many of these kids for more than three years—through low counts and infections and relapses and off-treatment parties. I know many of these kids by name. You may not, but they could be your kids, your sister or brother, niece or nephew, grandchild, anyone. Please watch it.
The sister and brother in this opening frame are Ashley and Ryan—they both had ALL. Ashley's life was short and filled with courage—September 13, 1996 to December 8, 2007 (she was still fighting cancer when this video was released)—and her brother Ryan completed his treatment July 2006. That a family could have two children with leukemia is unfathomable. www.caringbridge.org/wi/ashley/
If you've come to Graydon's site through the Canadian Living magazine article "My Journey with Graydon"—welcome! You can click on the icons at the end to read past journal entries, see a few photos or leave a message of encouragement to Graydon in the guestbook. If you haven't signed a guestbook before, don't worry, it's easy. Just follow the prompts.
Thank you for visiting. Be sure to give blood and sign up to be a bone marrow donor. You will save a life.
OK, this photo is small, my mum says thanks for not giving her time to put on makeup, but Luka has enough blue and white hair gel for all of us! — from special guest editor, Graydon!
This a photo of Graydon on site and in wardrobe for an MTV television ad that he was part of. This time, it had nothing to do with cancer—yahoo!!!
Journal
Monday, June 23, 2008 12:37 AM CDT
Wow! It really has been six months since I last posted about Graydon! I'm posting plenty over at my mom blog "Because I Said So!" on the website of Canadian Living magazine (www.canadianliving.com/blogs/mom). The name of the blog makes me sound so, what, bossy?, when in reality I always try to give my kids choices (not just my way or the highway...).
Graydon and his cancer battle, or journey as I sometimes call it, started in 2001, chemo ended in 2004, and while he has successfully beaten cancer so far, the late-effect hits just keep on coming. If it isn't learning disabilities, anxieties and poor bone health, it's non-existent growth hormones and messed-up insides. But, when people meet him and talk to him, they are always struck by what a wonderful, kind and warm person he is. On the weekend one mum of a friend of Luka's (G's seven-year-old brother) asked if Graydon was interested in serious kid-sitting in the future, because she thought he would be wonderful for her son.
That is the kind of thing I love to hear. Our childhood cancer survivors have a huge battle on their hands after the treatment is over—the chemo and radiation wreak havoc on their brains and bodies, and it takes tough kids to keep fighting even after the cancer is beaten back.
On the parents' support lists ALL-KIDS and PED-ONC-SURV I have met and made friends with many parents and kids who have won the battle against cancer and been released forever, and many other who fight on. I dedicate Graydon's 4th anniversary of survivorship to them.
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