Help and Prayers for Dryden

On August 21, our little pride and joy, Dryden Stuart, was admitted to Cincinnati Children's Hospital,with unusual symptoms (fever, pain, anemia, etc) -- after five days of tests, the diagnosis came back on August 26th -- "everything is pointing to stage IV Neuroblastoma." Initially, the doctors had hoped it would be among the easier cancers to treat, but he has among the more challenging and rarest of childhood cancers. With the recent advances in medicine to treat this horrible disease, most kids can be cured (usually after a grueling 18-month protocol), but it's still a hard road ahead for all of us.

The good news is that he is being cared for by the world's leading doctors, whose specialty is the kind of cancer he has. This is so providential, and we are grateful to God for this.

While I have gainful employment from an excellent contract-to-hire job opportunity obtained in March, the new medical benefits will not kick in until October 1st. It's an understatement to say the we were blindsided by this event.

Dryden's mom and my dear wife Julie, has been living in the hospital with him, while I have been doing everything to split my time between the hospital and taking care of the other boys at home. Our secondary income has effectively vanished, which has created a financial burden for us, to say nothing of the crushing $200,000+ medical debt racked up just for August alone. We are looking desperately for programs for any relief.

Dryden's various treatments are broken up into three phases of 6 months at a time. He will be in and out of the hospital for about 12 more weeks during this time (his mom will be with him for two 6-week treatments of immunotherapy). Even though we live only 20 miles from the hospital, lots of gas is needed to go back and forth to support the mother and for visitation.

Julie and I are not the sort of people who like to ask anyone for help or aid, but in this unusually trying time, we are looking for any help we can get. We have full confidence our little man will get through this. Nevertheless, we rely entirely on God's mercy and loving generosity He might stir up in the hearts of friends, known and unknown. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

In Christ Jesus,

The Stuarts