Andrew's Journey

The words a parent never wants to hear...... your child has cancer.  The son who loves baseball, wrestling and football has a new battle to fight. Andrew is a kind, intelligent, hard working, athletic, loving young man that was given a curve ball at the age of 14. His story began at a summer Babe Ruth baseball game a week prior to playoffs. He was playing outfielder and going for a pop fly. Unfortunately the ball went over the top of his glove and hit him in he face. He was taken in for an exam and had impact testing done. Testing showed signs of a concussion. He went home that evening and had a bloody nose which did not stop for 12 hours. In the days to come he rested but continued to have headaches, dizziness, nausea, low appetite and confusion, all fitting for a concussion. As the week progressed his mom felt he needed to be seen again because his symptoms were not improving. She took him in to see their doctor, had labs done, went home and waited to hear results. They got the call that his labs were abnormal. Hemoglobin was at 5.6 (normal is 12+), platelets 37,000 (normal is 150,000) and white blood cells 130,000 (normal is 5,000). Doctor said all signs of Leukemia. They sent him to Children's Hospital to start his fight. So the unfortunate missed catch was a blessing. 
     Andrew is the second oldest of 6 kids in a loving family. They all have a strong faith which will help them tremendously. God will hold them all each and every day. At the weakest moments he will be strong for them. Andrew will fight this with God and WIN!! 
Kip and Carrie, Andrew 's parents, are going to be with him as much as possible. The difficult part is, they own their own business so unfortunately do not have PTO hours to use when spending time at the hospital with Andrew. They live 2.5-3 hours from the hospital where he is receiving treatment. Once they are able to come home they will still need to travel weekly for chemotherapy treatments. This is going to be a tremendous expense along with the major medical bills over the next few years. It would be so greatly appreciated if you could help them out with the financial burden this is going to be for their family.
Thank you all for taking the time to read Andrew's story. Thank you for your donation, prayers, words of encouragement, whatever you are able to do for them. God bless you all!