Halo Traction & Spinal Surgery 2018

Hi Everyone, Some of you know Clayton and his story already. He is an amazing child that has been dealt a tough hand. He was born with kidney disease that continues to this day. At 6 months he began developing scoliosis. At 3 years he was diagnosed with Stage IV high risk neuroblastoma followed by a diagnosis of Soto’s Syndrome. At 5 he underwent two and a half months of halo traction followed by a vertebral column resection and a fusion. His original curve was 103 degrees and he was diagnosed with kyphoscoliosis. Since that time he has been battling his kidney on and off, all while a completely new curve formed as his spine grew. This curve grew directly below the portion of his spine that had already been fused and started within 8 months of that surgery. It was a devastating blow for our family. Over the past few years the doctor has been waiting for Clayton to grow as much as possible before undergoing a second round and more final solution. Unfortunately, the surgery cannot wait any longer without risking issues with his organs from the curvature. So now we are all set to do it all again. We leave in April 2018 to start another round of halo traction for two and a half months followed by a full spinal fusion over the summer. During this time, Clayton and I will live inpatient in our hospital in Texas for 3 months while our family is all home in Alabama. Last time we went to Texas for this, we had funds from our cancer fund that help us to get through. This time we have no such fund and therefore are truly grateful to anyone who feels called to help us put one together during March before we leave. I will try to update here as much as possible, but most of my updates will be on instagram. You can find us under catching_clayton. I will post daily updates there. Thank you to all those who love and support us on this journey. You can also find all of our story starting with Clayton’s cancer days at www.catchingclayton.com. I have not updated it in a while. Now I use instagram, but may return to updating the blog as well.