John's Journey

John was born a healthy 7lb 13oz boy on July 28, 2019.  He completed Eric and Karigan’s family that also included twin sisters, Emily and Paisley.  Everything seemed to going as planned with John meeting all his normal milestones until one day something just didn’t seem right; he became less active, pale and fusser than normal.  He was seen at the emergency room and then transferred to a higher acuity hospital where he was found to have a very critically low blood count.  Normal value for ages 6 months to 4 years is at or above 11.0—John’s registered at 3.5!!!  He received so many blood and platelet infusions that we all lost count.  Following a bone marrow biopsy he was diagnosed leukemia, cancer of the blood.  He is believed to have an aggressive, rare and difficult to treat form of leukemia called Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML).  This is where white blood cells in the bone marrow (area responsible for creating blood cells) overproduce and crowd out red blood cells and platelets leading to infections, anemia and bleeding and with a diagnosis rate is 1-2 children out of a million.  The only treatment to date is bone marrow transplant or stem cell transplant.  Typically siblings are the best donor match however the girls were tested and unfortunately were not a match therefore he has to rely on the gift of strangers to provide lifesaving bone marrow.  John was transferred to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for chemotherapy to destroy the cancer cells and then receive his new stem cells to begin to make his own functional blood production.  Because of this invasive treatment, Eric, Karigan and John will be at Cincinnati for unknown period of time and once again we find ourselves relying on the gift of strangers, family and friends.   In order to be by their sons side during this difficult time, neither one can work, will be away from their girls and their only support system .  Consequently, their monthly bills will go unpaid and the potential of loosing their home is is a scary thought.  All we want is for John's parents to be able to focus on John's needs and not financial difficulties.  Therefore we are asking for anyone willing to donate if they can, share to expand our reach and pray for this little boy who will spend his first birthday in the hospital fighting for many more.  Thank you for hearing his story and God Bless!!