Jackson McLendon

Jackson was in his senior year of high school, 18 years old and looking forward to moving to California to attend college on a football scholarship. Doctors found a 10 cm tumor on Jack’s right kidney in February. They immediately scheduled surgery to remove his kidney. Jack was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a pediatric cancer usually in the bone. Ewing’s is a very aggressive cancer, and doctors recommended a very aggressive treatment. Jack began Chemo Therapy less than two weeks after the removal of his kidney. He is receiving 14 rounds of inpatient chemo. He checks into the hospital every other week, alternating 3 day and 5 day stays. In the middle of chemo, he has had 30 rounds of radiation. On top of it all, for the first couple of months, Jack had other medical issues that put him the hospital on non-chemo weeks. Fortunately, that has leveled out. He has received several blood transfusions over the last few months as well. He recently had an adverse reaction to one and was hospitalized yet again to rule out any bacterial infection. Fortunately there was no infection. Needless to say, he’s checked into the hospital around 15 times this year and still has at least 5 more to go. He graduated from high school with the assistance of Hospital Homebound.