Aiden's Journey

The week of March 8th, Aiden was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). More specifically, he has the more common type that affect the B-cell lymphocytes. This is a cancer that involves the blood-forming cells that normally make a type of white blood cell called a lymphoblast, develops a series of mistakes or mutations that transforms it into a leukemia cell. Basically, his bone marrow is not making the right type of cells to make enough white blood cells to fight infection.

In the time since his diagnosis, Aiden has had blood and platelet transfusions, a bone marrow biopsy and aspirate, lumbar puncture (or spinal tap), MRIs, scans, labs, and tests galore!

We are at the start of a three year journey. We have a clear picture of the first 28 days. Aiden will need to have chemotherapy sessions twice a week through his port, in addition to taking multiple pills each day. For every medicine, there is potential for side affects that lead to different medicines.

For those of you who are following along on our journey and want to help, this GoFundMe has been created to help with the anticipation of the needs that come with a life altering diagnosis such as Aiden’s.

Initially, Aiden did not want to share his diagnosis with anyone or post anything about it on social media. He felt that people would pity him and his situation and did not want that. However, due to the outpouring of love and kindness from all Aiden’s family and friends, as a family we have had to come to the conclusion that our loved ones want to help share this load with us so that we can finish this marathon without it ravaging Aiden’s mindset or our family.

We do not know how much we need, but every dime will be allocated in one of two ways: 

• Covering the medical needs for Aiden. That could be hospital visits, prescriptions, procedures, food (one of the meds he’s on will make him ravenous at times), mental health needs, etc. 
• Remaining funds after Aiden’s stayed the course to remission, will be donated to an organization that supports children diagnosed with leukemia and  their families. All our care has been through Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and the amount of resources they had on hand really helped to calm some fears and create a sense of family for all of us. The hospital and any research they are doing would be a front-runner for any and all our donations.

Here is our CaringBridge for updates - https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/aidensjourney1019

Here is our Meal Train - https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/84vgd4

If you are not comfortable with donating to this GoFundMe, we have direct connections via:

• CashApp - $Educ8rchic
• Venmo - @Educ8rchic
  

We are working hard to accept the fact that we are worthy of your generosity simply because you care. We’re tossing aside the feelings of pity, guilt, and sense of burden. Our motto going forward is “yes, please and thank you.”