Welcome to Dawson's Web page. This page is provided to keep you updated on Dawson's progress. "Love you whole world" says Dawson On February 4, 2005 our worst nightmare came true. Dawson was diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma. What started out as a simple black eye around Christmas developed into his eyeball then appearing larger than the other. We immediately went to the doctor thinking that he had a eye injury. He had complained for a couple weeks of leg aches, we thought it was just growing pains. After visiting the pediatrician, then the eye doctor the next day, they sent him for a cat scan and found the tumor behind his left eye. We were devastated but it only got worse. We were sent to Iowa City and they suspected from the beginning, Neuroblastoma. I wanted them to be all wrong, but on Friday, February 4 the most important people in his life sat outside a waiting room praying. They confirmed the nightmare was true. They found his abdominal was full of tumer also and suspected in his bone marrow also. The CT revealed an abdominal mass arising from the right adrenal gland and a second mass anterior to the aorta, likely representing a nodal metastasis. The head MRI revealed bilateral intraorbital masses. The bone scan revealed suspisious bony metastases to L1, L3, left femoral neck and left parietal bone. The MIBG was positive in the abdomen, left periorbit, bilateral proximal femora, and bilateral iliac crest. A bone marrow biopsy showed extensive bilateral replacement of the bone marrow by tumor cells, most consistent with neuroblastoma. Dawson's tumor pathology of the mass revealed poorly differrentiated neuroblastoma , unfavorable histology, n-myc oncogene non-amplified. All of this information was way to much to digest and only made us sick to our stomachs with fear. Jeff & I didn't even want to even go home, we were so scared. We came back four days later ready to fight this. That's exactly what he's doing and we are with him every step of the way, we will fight this disease until he is rid of it. He is a survivor! Dawson has recieved 6 rounds of chemotherapy, two surgerys to remove his abdominal tumor and has undergone a stem cell transplant. At the time of transplant he was declared NED - No Evident Disease. Neuroblastoma has a very high rate of relapse, we are doing everything in our power to prevent that. Dawson began being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York, where he recieved radiation and 3F8 monocol antibodies every 3 weeks from October 2005 through February 2006, then he was put on a program where he recieved treatments every 8 weeks through November 2007. Dawson recieved 14 antibody treatments with no hama. We ask God and you to keep Dawson in your prayers. Large numbers can do great things.
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Journal
Thursday, October 9, 2008 10:58 AM CDT
We are finished. Dawson is just still sleeping off the anethesia from the bone marrows. He had his MRI bone scan last night, held still without any problems. We stopped, got our dinner and took a cab back to the hotel. I was never so glad to get to our room, being at the hospital for 10 hours was long enough. We just sat in our room, ate, watched t.v and before you know it, it was time for bed. We both were really tired, even though Dawson thought he wasn't. This morning we packed our stuff up, had his MIBG and then bone marrows. When I took Dawson in for his bone marrows, I spoke to Dr.MOdak, he said the CT looked good and preliminary results for MIBG looked good from what he could see. I will get the rest of the results through email next week or maybe some tomorrow. I will make sure and post as soon as I find out. I ordered some lunch for Dawson and I, hoping I can get him to eat before we leave. It's 12 noon here and our car picks us up at 1:00. We have about an hour car ride to MOrristown, New Jersey where our plane leaves from, we are due to land at 4:00 p.m., then the limo picks us up at Palwaukee airport and we are headed home. The boys do not have school tomorrow, so I hope no one has anything planned early, we are sleeping IN!!! Do not call our house until noon anyone, Please! Homecoming parade, football game tomorrow and dance on Saturday along with soccer and such, so busy, busy weekend. I'll update as soon as I hear any additional news! Thanks for the prayers.
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