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Team Jason Kickin' Cancer's Butt!

On February 8th, my healthy 11-year-old son, Jason, woke up with puffy eyes.  No other symptoms.  So I watched it for a few days.  When he returned from a weekend with his Dad, his eyes were still puffy.  Still no other symptoms.  He went to school, I went to work, but I called the pediatrician and we were seen the same day.  It was Tuesday, February 16th.  When the doctor examined Jason, his liver and spleen felt swollen to her, so she sent us for blood work to rule out an infection. Those labs were drawn on Wednesday morning. Jason went to school when they were done.  His eyes were still puffy, but he was otherwise still feeling fine. Unfortunately, the lab failed to process the tests "stat" as ordered by our pediatrician, so, for expediency, she arranged for us to have labs drawn by her colleagues in the medical suite next to hers on Thursday afternoon.  And, as it happened, Jason woke up that morning feeling tired and achy, so he had stayed home from school.  By the time we arrived at office of the Pediatric Specialists of Virginia Center for Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders, Jason was so tired that he curled up on the exam table.  He slept through the labwork and the hour-long wait for the news that would follow:  his test results suggested a problem with his bone marrow.  They had a room waiting for us already on the 10th floor of new Children's Hospital -- the pediatric oncology floor -- and Jason was scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy the following morning, nothing to eat or to drink after midnight.  We were an hour from home, I had one wiped-out kid, and only my purse and our coats in hand, and we were headed to the hospital for an overnight stay.  Just 24 hours later our lives changed forever as we sat in a tiny consultation room with a doctor we just met and heard the words "Burkitt's Leukemia, Burkitt's Lymphoma."  Jason was just down the hall, and he was no longer just a tired, puffy-eyed kid, he was now in excruciating pain.  And it was CANCER.

Burkitt's grows that fast -- in a matter of days.  Jason endured hours of painful scans throughout the night that first Friday night and, as soon as he was through, he went straight into surgery to have a central line (port) installed in his chest and a spinal tap that included his first dose of chemotherapy.  That first admission lasted 16 days.  He has since been readmitted for chemotherapy or its side effects four more times; in the last 57 days, we've only spent 16 nights at home.

Aggressive cancer requires aggressive treatment, and it's been hard.  Really, really hard.  But it IS working and Jason's prognosis is good.  He is going to beat this thing and life is going to get back to "normal," just not fast enough for any of us, which is why we're reaching out.  We have another four to six months of treatment, intense treatment that will continue to require frequent and lengthy hospitalizations.  We are fortunate to have good health insurance, but my company abruptly stopped paying me a month ago so on top of worrying about the kids, we are now worried about how to pay the mounting bills.  Your donations will be used for just that -- to pay our out-of-pocket medical and living expenses until I am able to return to work.  Money raised in excess of what we need during this time will be donated to the Children's Oncology Group Foundation (http://cog-foundation.org/) to improve the outcome for all children with cancer.

Since the moment this crisis began, we have been awestruck by the outpouring of love and support from all around us -- the meals, the cards, the gifts, the visits, the texts, the calls, the prayers, the hugs, and just the general good positive energy that so many have sent, and continue to send, our way.  It's impossible to convey how much it has meant to all of us, how even the smallest gesture goes such a long way in helping to alleviate the stress, the overwhelming anxiety and the helplessness we all feel in this situation.  We are beyond thankful... and with your help, Iron J is Kickin' Cancer's Butt!

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jasonhill2
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $10 
    • 7 yrs
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Organizer

Kelly Johnson Boyer
Organizer
Ashburn, VA

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