Austen's Journey Fund
Friends & Family,
As you all know Austen was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma its a cancerous (malignant) bone tumor that usually develops during the period of rapid growth that occurs in adolescence, as a teenager matures into an adult. We have already had a long haul with the side effects that is caused with his chemotherapy treatments. Right now we are trying to live our life as normal as possible. I am trying to juggle everything all at once but it is becoming impossible. Since we are a big family and having 8 children we all know that kids have their needs and wants. Megan being the littlest is being juggled between myself, Jonathan, my mom and Valerie (her older sister). She will not stay with anybody and sometimes she is not able to go to the hospital room.
Now back to Austen, Austen has his ups and downs. He is very head strong about what's going on and we have no doubt that The Lord will work miracles and we will recover when expected. His main problem is losing his hair this has been very tough for him. We have bought him beanies and he also has that silly hat that he wears all the time. As of now he has been through 6 chemotherapy treatments. Austen had surgery on 12/20/2012, there was 2 ways it could happen. If the donor bone wasnt a good match then he will have to have a complete knee replacement. However, the donor bone was a perfect match.. They took the tumor down to the lab he's thinking it was all dead. They took out his old scar all the way down to the bone because the old scar tends to hold live cancer cells. He had to move his calf muscle and replace it over the hole that was made from the old scar. They did a skin graph from his thigh to cover up the scar because it left a big place they didn't have enough skin to close it up.. He is in a knee brace and will be in one for about 3 months. We will find out about the tumor in about 5 days at this point that's when we will know what path of chemotherapy treatment we will take.. The cancer has to be at least 90% dead to continue the same path of chemotherapy. I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for all the prayers. We got news that the cancer was 80% dead, 10% was dying and or deformed and 10% was still alive. the good news is we will continue the path we are on with the chemotherapy treatments. He will have 12 more rounds of chemotherapy, this will take about 6 months to accomplish. however, ALL THE CANCER IS OUT OF HIS LEG!!! He starts his first round of chemo on 1/17/2013. Today is 4/3/2013 and just add some updates. Austen has 6 chemotherapy treatments left. He has 4 that will be hospital stays and 2 that will be in the clinic. We are getting to the end. Praise The Lord!! Then he will go for intense physical therapy.. Praying that the physical therapy is not too hard for him. He hasn't moved his leg or put in pressure on his leg since Dec. 20th.
Right now we are asking for donations for Austen and the situation that our family is facing. I have continued to work through this process but I am running out of FMLA days. I'm not sure whats going to happen once that is over. With having such a big family and Jonathan's work load going up and down it's impossible because we never know what kind of money will be coming in. We have t-shirts and bracelets available. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at [email redacted] or contact me by phone at 214-991-4154. Thanks for taking the time to view his funding page.
