Cody Wood: Cancer Victor, Lung Disease Warrior

EDIT: As of FEB. 1 2021, cody was blessed with a new set of lungs, the first transplant of the new year! He is currently in Houston Children’s hospital recovering, he still has a long road ahead of him and will have to remain with his mom in Texas for a long while.. thank you for all your support!

 Hi, I’m Codys Aunt Stephie and I’m here to tell you his story, his victory .. and his current battle. In March of 2010 Cody was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma.. he was just a baby, 17 months old. It progressed fast and it was hard fought. Never have I seen a child so tiny, so sick. His mom and dad fought by his side along with his then 4 year old brother and soon after a new baby sister.. they held fast and they fought hard and Cody was VICTORIOUS! In June 2011 he was officially cancer free and has been ever since! He is an absolute miracle. Flash forward to July of 2020.. cody isn’t feeling well and having trouble breathing.  Mom(Shannon) takes him to Motts Children’s hospital(U of M) and this is where our current battle begins... spots on his lungs, heart rate issues, inability to keep his oxygen levels safe and he was fairly quickly admitted.. we were all terrified(still are) was it a relapse? Secondary cancer caused by treatment of the first cancer? He was getting sicker day by day and the drs were completely perplexed.. they needed to biopsy but he was so fragile they were afraid to.. tumor board meetings, endless drs in and out and FINALLY after weeks they decided to biopsy his lung, well more than that really.. they took a piece of it and days went by. They felt like months waiting for an answer. It wasn’t cancer it was a whole different enemy..Pediatric Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.. a disease so rare his Drs had never actually seen a case. Once more his disease was so progressed it was astonishing to them, they’d only seen this in adults.. Cody gets check ups yearly at motts because he is a cancer survivor.. last year at this time he was completely fine. So over the course of only 12 months he’s progressed to Oxygen full time and also a wheelchair. The drs have concluded that he will need a lung transplant and possibly a heart as well. There are trial drugs to try and stop the progression while he waits for transplant but they’ve never been used on a child & the only two hospitals are in Pittsburgh & Boston.. Codys parents, Shannon & Mike Wood have not only cody, but 3 other young kids. Shannon has left her job to stay home with Cody full time and Mike has had to take a lay-off until the details of Codys treatment are hammered out in the coming weeks. They are going to need all the support(financial and moral), love, prayers, good vibes and hope we can give them.  I cannot fix Cody but I can do all of the other things with your help. Help me to help them, so money is one less worry that they have. Thank you for taking the time to read Codys story and also I thank you and bless you for helping in anyway possible. 

-Aunt Stephie