Zachary's Medical Expenses

Zachary is our oldest son. He is a beautiful and intelligent 9-year old boy with a wonderful sense of humor and has eyes that light up a room. 

Zachary was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma on July 2, 2015. He was classified in the high risk category due to where it has spread to his bones in various places and affected his bone marrow, and due to his advanced age. He had 18 infected areas in total, as well as disease in his bone marrow. While this was not an ideal scenario, his oncologist indicated that this disease is curable.

Zachary started a very long treatment plan in July. He received 6 rounds of chemotherapy between July 20th and December 20th. Doctors also harvested his stem cells after the second round so that he could essentially be his own donor later in the process. Zachary responded positively to the chemotherapy; his number of diseased areas were significantly reduced, as was the amount of disease in his bone marrow, and the proteins in his urine went back to a normal level. He underwent successful surgery on November 11th to remove the initial tumor, which had shrunk down and was mostly necrotic at that point.  Thankfully the surgery was able to be done with a scope, which was much less invasive and which made recovery a bit easier.

Zachary was not quite at the point where he had no evidence of disease, so an extra round of radiation treatment was required. He received MIBG radiation on January 5th, and it worked in his system for about 6 weeks specifically targeting any remaining cancer cells. This reduced the disease a bit further

Zachary then had two rounds of antibody therapy through March and April, paired with additional chemo. His scans after this indicated that he only has 1 area of minimal disease remaining! He also has almost zero disease remaining in his bone marrow.

Zachary's main stem cell transplant took place in May. He received some stem cells during the third week of January as part of the radiation therapy cycle. He checked in on May 18th, received a final high dose chemotherapy for 4 days, and then had his stem cells infused on the 25th. It took 7-10 for those stem cells to find their roots back in the bone marrow and to begin producing healthy blood cells. Zachary had a rough couple of weeks, but then started to gradually feel better as his blood count improved and actually checked out a couple of days earlier than expected (after almost a month in the hospital).

Zachary is currently in the midst of a regimen of immune therapy. This will train his body to detect in advance any potential cancer cells and to attack them before they develop and spread. Once he completes this, his central line catheter will be removed (probably in mid-January) and hopefully he will be done forever. 

Zachary was homeschooled for the 4th grade; he returned to school for the 5th grade in the fall but has had to miss a lot of time due to the immune therapy. He is looking forward to rejoining his classmates full time probably in late February.

We are unsure of what the total cost will end up being for Zachary's medical expenses. Zachary has required a lot of home care, doctor's visits, and hospital visits; as a result, his mother needed to take extended unpaid leave from her job last year and is only able to teach part-time this year. Riley also may end up needing additional care, as both Vicky and Keith will have to spend time at the hospital, and Keith still has to work. We are thankful for all of the many donations that we have received so far, and for all of the fundraisers that Zachary's school has done for him. We would certainly appreciate any additional donations that will help us stay afloat through this time wher we have reduced income and additional expenses.

Please keep Zachary in your thoughts and prayers. He has shown an amazing spirit so far and has cleared many hurdles, but still has a bit more to go. We are so proud of him, and we are very thankful that so many people have shown such generosity and love to our son and our family.

Thank you so much. ~ Keith, Vicky, Zachary, & Riley Berzanske