Bo Wade - Medical & Fun Fund

Bo’s journey fighting cancer began March 9th when he received his first abnormal MRI scan. However, signs of his cancer began as early as October 2017. Bo would intermittently and infrequently wake up in the middle of the night complaining of upper thigh pain. A very active, social, and athletic kid; we thought it was growing pains or a sprained muscle. By late January, his pains seemed to intensify but again, only at night. Then on March 8th while he was at school; he came in from recess crying in pain. Thankfully, the teacher communicated it to us immediately and within hours Bo started walking with a severe limp, enough for the Doctor to order his first MRI scan on March 9th, then we began investigative measures, meaning more MRIs, CT scans, blood draws, patient history reports, exposure potentials, and finally a final diagnosis with Ewing Sarcoma. (To learn more about Ewing Sarcoma, visit the link below: https://www.hopkinsallchildrens.org/patients-families/health-library/healthdocnew/ewing-sarcoma)

Bo is currently undergoing intensive chemotherapy and radiation with hope for a cure before the holiday season. He receives chemotherapy treatments every 2 weeks and must remain in the hospital for extended periods of time. His longest stay is for 6 straight days; boredom is truly the biggest battle on those days! Radiation treatments are daily, Monday – Friday, for 6.5 weeks straight. What happens if chemo and radiation hit on the same day? We get to ride in an ambulance to and from the different hospitals, so all his medications and mandatory fluids stay intact.

Bo continues to inspire us with his positive attitude and silly grin. He is handling this experience very well considering his current limitations and a long list of things he should or can not do. He has already endured over 120 needle pokes, 4 MRIs, a port placement surgery, a bone biopsy surgery, 2 CT scans, a PET scan, 17 doses of radiation, 8 rounds of chemo, 2 extra hospitalizations from running fevers, 3 ambulance rides, athletes foot, a new Wart on his foot named Walter, we now have to deal with, nasty mouth sores each time he receives a certain chemo med, occasional constipation, occasional diarrhea, dehydration, isolation, alopecia (losing all his hair)…yet amongst all this; he still enjoys spending time with his 2 year-old baby sister, Jet and his 8 year-old brother, Will. Bo also enjoys playing video games like Fort Nite and Overwatch. He spends much of his time in the hospital playing Minecraft and creating new dinosaurs in one of the cool realms. We are having fun introducing Bo to old school board games and card games; he already beats me at Chess and Connect 4!

Our journey, even though very emotional and difficult, has also been filled with amazing generosity and international support. Grandparents continue to cross state lines to help us out, friends and co-workers send us prayers, food, gift cards, toys for our other children, money for fun; the list goes on and on. And the local resources as well as both of our past and current employers have been awesome. 

Keep the prayers coming please!