Holden's battle for a cure

Holden Zarda has been battling two forms of Leukemia since February of 2018. He also has a rare gene mutation called Monosomy 7. His cancer cells also tend to mutate making it difficult to treat! He has had a unrelated Bone Marrow Transplant November 15th of 2019. 5 days before his year anniversary he relapsed. We had just returned for our yearly checkup and were devastated by the news he once more had relapsed. This was the third time we had to hear those devastating words Holden has cancer again. For us living almost 4 hours away from the hospital has provided a hardship of its own. Commutes to from the hospital for just checkups seem to take its toll, but now once again because of the form of treatment he receives we will have to live in Madison. I will stay with Holden in Madison while his mother and father continue to work to provide insurance for his healthcare and his basic needs. They commute down every weekend to spend precious moments with their little boy. He has been under chemotherapy since November 10th of this year again but this is not going to give us a cure. We are now scheduled for Tuesday December 22nd to have Car T Therapy at American Family Children's Hospital, in Madison, Wisconsin. Car T Therapy is something where his T cells are harvested and sent to a lab in New Jersey that re-engineers them to become cancer-fighting cells. They are then infused back into his body. This is when the battle begins! The re-engineered cells then seek to destroy cancer cells. During this process the child can become severely ill. You have to stay close to the hospital within minutes. At any time during the first 30 days these children can become critically ill. We realize because of the difficulty of treating his type of cancer they do not feel this may be a cure but a bridge until he likely will have to receive a second Bone Marrow Transplant. We are going to pray for miracles nonetheless that maybe Car T will be the answer. If it isn't we will have to go through another Bone Marrow Transplant but that forces us to stay anywhere from 3 to 4 months in Madison! Unfortunately if this does not work we will be forced to look outside of the state for a cure! #HOLDEN STRONG