Donate to Gordon's care

Thank you so much to everyone for your love and support and prayers and thoughts and donations. It has touched us very deeply and we appreciate it more than you will ever know.

Love to all of you,

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I am Auntie Elise and some of you know that my 14-month-old nephew Gordon (gogo), has been dealing with some very serious health issues since February.

Several months ago doctors found a pilocytic astrocytoma tumor growing in his cervical spinal cord. The tumor is inoperable because of its location in his body. The tumor has caused Gordon significant physical issues, where he is unable to move his left arm and both legs. Additionally because the tumor is inoperable, Gordon began chemotherapy one week after his first birthday.

Gordon is having an extremely difficult time.

One month ago Gordon developed a neurological complication and had to have a shunt placed in his head. The shunt was placed because fluid was building up in his brain, as the fluid could not pass through his body due to the neck tumor blocking the flow, so the fluid is now being diverted to his stomach. There have been additional complications and changes to his condition and gogo has been in the hospital since Memorial Day weekend. Currently, he has a bowel blockage that has made him unable to eat, a staph infection, and worsening neurological decline. We anticipate that Gordon will need two surgeries in the next months to deal with his infected shunt. Gordon is in the ICU and will be there for an indeterminate amount of time.

In March, my brother-in-law lost his job because he needed to take time off to be with Gordon at MSKCC when Gordon’s chemo port was being surgically implanted into his chest. And as of June 4th, my sister was let go from her job because she needs to be with Gordon everyday to manage his care. She will lose the insurance that covers Gordon's care within the next few weeks unless she is able to find a way to pay for cobra insurance.

Gordon’s care plan involves an oral chemotherapy agent that can take months to get approved and any break in treatment would be devastating to Gordon.

Although Gordon is lucky to have a very loving family and excellent care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, it has been a very difficult and scary time for me and my family watching Gordon’s health decline and to see how the tumor has taken over his life. He is a very different baby today than he was even 2 months ago.

If you are able to donate to help my sister and her husband with the ongoing costs of Gordon’s care, and the ongoing costs of everyday life while they focus on supporting Gordon through this difficult time, great, and if you are not able that is OK too. Either way, please keep Gordon in your thoughts and prayers and send him positive vibes. Gordon is doing the best he can and is a very strong baby. Hopefully he will not remember any of this when he is my age.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and feel free to share the link. I hope you all are well.