Fighting for Graham

Graham Ballenger is 10 years old and is facing a very difficult health situation. It started over Christmas of 2018; he started looking very pale, extremely lethargic, his eyes were yellow; he was not himself.  On January 2, 2019, Amy, his mom, took him to the pediatrician and the minute he looked at him he knew something bad was going on. The initial reaction was Leukemia. Blood was taken, ultrasound done because his spleen was enlarged, etc. The next morning the pediatrician called and said, "Go IMMEDIATELY the the pediatric hematologist-oncologist, Dr. Patel." As fast as they could they were there. Graham was so weak he was almost unresponsive. Dr. Patel picked him up himself and carried him into the exam room that is where the needles, IV's, questions, nurses, all these things happening at 1000 miles per hour started. Dr. Patel sedated Graham and removed bone marrow from his hip so he could confirm or deny Leukemia. Then, the worst 90 minutes of their lives happened...Graham coming out of anesthesia. He screamed and cried out to God the whole time. "God, can you hear me? Am I going to die? God, I love you so much? Did you bring my Momma with me and my Daddy and Parker?" Over and over he did this and finally fell asleep. As tests started to come back it was determined he was infected with a virus called Cocksackie that lives in contaminated water; he likely picked it up at the Seattle Aquarium on the Ballenger Thanksgiving family trip, at the petting pool for stingrays. The way it manifested in Graham was in the spleen causing the red blood cells to die causing Acute Hemolytic Anemia. Treatment started and they are trying to get Graham to the point of recovery. 10 months have now gone by...it was only supposed to be 3-4. The Cocksackie is gone but the antibodies are still in the spleen confusing the good blood from the bad and killing it all leaving him in this vicious cycle of high blood and severely low blood. This past 6 weeks have been particularly devastating to Graham. Right before school started his blood level plummeted and he started school weak and frail. He was put on high doses of prednisone and levels rose. As Dr. Patel started to taper the steroids the vicious cycle started again. The bad blood overtook the good but this time 100x worse. He became extremely jaundice October 10th and was sent to the ER for testing. Then, to the hematologist the next day where he received more steroids to boost his counts. Two days later he caught a stomach virus and began to vomit. Fast forward to Wednesday, Oct. 16, he became unconscious on the way to see Dr. Patel where they found out he was more than severely dehydrated and his counts had plummeted lower than what they were in January; a 5.1 out of 15.5. He was admitted for hydration and IV steroids, sent home with IV fluids, came back the next day for check up where they needed to repeat the process with currently, very little progress. He is in the fight of his life but is stronger than any of us put together. His faith in God is unwavering and flawless. He started a new IV treatment Friday, Oct. 18, and will have the same treatment every Friday for 5 weeks. He will likely be home-bound for up to 6 weeks from school or the rest of the semester and his parents have exhausted every financial avenue possible to provide care for him. Skipping car payments and feeding only the boys and not themselves because his care is so expensive. His mom is the insurance carrier and if she doesn't work they won't survive. Each transfusion is between $3000-$5000 with 20% out of pocket each time. Any support will go directly to supporting Graham's medical procedures.
Despite all this hardship, they continue to trust in the Great Physician, our Lord and Savior, for all their financial, emotional, healing, and daily needs.  
The Ballenger's are such a loving, kind, and giving family and now they need our communities help. Anything you can do to help Graham will ultimately help his parent's with the financial stressors to keep get him stabilized and healthy.