Hello,

I'm writing today about my sweet, goofy, selfless giant of a son, Jeremiah. Last Friday, after experiencing some head pain and partial loss of tongue movement, I brought him to the ER and a brain MRI was ordered. We were then informed there was an aggressive tumor found growing on the bone marrow at the base of his skull. The imaging showed that the tumor is putting pressure on his brain which is why he was experiencing the loss of movement in his tongue and speech changes. We were able to get more imaging done on Monday and speak with the neurosurgeon who is hopeful it's not cancerous, but believes it may be a rare blood disorder called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. We will not be able to confirm this until they are able to get a biopsy, but due to the placement of the tumor and damage that's already been done to the bone, they are searching for a different approach that will be less risky for him. With the complications of trying to reach this tumor and the rarity of the blood disorder, we have been getting pulled back and forth between multiple different specialists to figure everything out. The Neurosurgeon mentioned that he is clinically doing well besides the speech changes, but because this is affecting his brain there is a bit more urgency to get as much answered as we can. We are scheduled to have more imagining on his entire body tomorrow to check if there are any other tumors on his bones, then we plan to meet with the Cancer and Blood Disorder clinic as well for more updates. Right now, the best case scenario for us would be that they can confirm it is Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis which would then be treated with low dose chemo for an extended amount of time. We are still unsure how long that will last or how it will affect him.

Jeremiah has been amazingly positive throughout everything and even tried to get out of homework on the way home from the hospital :) We are taking everything one day, min, and second at a time as we are completely unsure how this will all play out.

The reason I'm writing today is to do something I am NOT great at and that is asking for help. I am extremely lucky enough to be able to work from home and have my hours be as flexible as needed during this time so that I can still do what needs to be done while getting my hours in. However, I am currently trying to recover financially from a few different things that hit us unexpectedly in December. One of those expenses was from impact damage to my front wheels after my car decided to move like a sled on the snow. Shortly after getting my right side inner and outer tie rods replaced, I noticed loud noises from the front end and intense shaking while on the highway. I brought it back in and found out that the impact apparently also damaged both wheel bearings in the front. So here I am, asking for your help, so I can at least take one stress off my plate knowing I have a reliable car to get Jeremiah to and from all the upcoming appointments we have between the Mpls and St. Paul Children's hospitals. Any little bit is helpful and will be beyond appreciated by my entire family.