Help Jalon Kick Cancer's Ass!

Some time in July, after the baseball season ended, Jalon started complaining of some pain in his knee. At first we thought it was a baseball injury from a slide or something so we iced it and waited for it to subside. When it didn’t subside we took him to the doctor and they thought it was just "growing pains". A few days later, after his first football practice, he was really in pain and limping so we took him to the orthopedic and spine center on August 20th. Dr. Mortimer, who I now owe my life to, took an x-ray and was very concerned with what he saw so he ordered an MRI for the next morning. The MRI showed a mass on his knee consistent with an aggressive tumor and Dr. Mortimer wanted us to get to a specialist ASAP for a biopsy. He got in touch with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and we had appointments scheduled for the next week. At Mayo Jalon received another MRI, a chest CT scan, a biopsy, and a nuclear medicine bone scan. He was poked and prodded for a week and got braver and braver each time.
     We got the pathology results back on August 28th and the tumor in his knee is, in fact, osteosarcoma, which is a rare bone cancer that can also spread to the lungs. According to the MRI and bone scan the cancer is not in any other bones and hasn't spread further than his knee. There are two nodules on his lungs that the oncologist would like to keep an eye on but she is pretty confident they are not osteosarcoma. The oncologist and orthopedic surgeon worked together to make a plan, which will include a round of chemo, surgery, then another round of chemo.
     The first round of chemo is 10 weeks but is spread out within those 10 weeks (a few days then a break then a few days) and will be inpatient at Sanford Children’s Hospital in Sioux Falls. The surgery will be back at Mayo but we won't know details about that until we see what the chemo does to the tumor. Following the surgery Jalon will need to get 19 more weeks of chemo.
     This will be a very long road for Jalon but we talk every single day about how we are going to kick this tumor’s ass. Our support system continues to grow; we are overwhelmed by all of the kindness and generosity that surrounds us.