Charlie’s Fight

Charlie Price (Charliemander) is a high energy 4 year old, and he has recently been diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia. Essentially what that means is that he has rogue immune cells that are attacking his bone marrow, and causing him to have very low levels of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. This is a very rare and serious condition. There are only about 4-5 Eastern Iowa children are treated for this annually.



The treatment for S.A.A. is pretty intense for the little guy and is going to put a lot of stress on his family. Severe Aplastic Anemia has to be treated in two major phases. The first phase is to eliminate the rogue immune cells that are attacking the body. This will be done with a short round of chemotherapy. The second phase once the rogue immune cells have been removed, is to do a Bone Marrow Transplant. This will require that a bone marrow donor is found for Charlie, and will be a tough process, with a long recovery. Once both of these processes have been performed successfully he will be disease free, and drug free.



The timeline for this whole process to take place is significant. He is currently out of the hospital receiving supportive care for the next 6-8 weeks, as they seek a bone marrow donor match for Charlie. During this time he will have 2 appointments per week, and Charlie will receive blood transfusions any time his platelets, red blood count, or white blood count is too low.



Once the 6-8 week supportive care phase is over, and they have found a donor, Charlie will be admitted to the hospital for the long stay. This is where it gets rough. The first 6-8 days is when he will receive the short, and low level chemotherapy. He will lose his hair during this process, but it will grow back. Then comes the bone marrow transplant. This process, and the two weeks after will be the hardest part for Charlie. It will take extra support and strength to make it through this time for Charlie and the entire family. If everything goes well it sounds like this portion could leave Charlie in the hospital for a total of 6-8 weeks. If there are complications this could obviously be extended.



After this Charlie should have rebuilt his immune system to a point that he can be released home, but under strict isolation rules, and 3 weekly visits to the hospital. Even after this 100 days Charlie will have to have regular appointments for a while, and will have annual checkups to check on this for the rest of his life.



There will be many challenges during this process for the family. Throughout the entire process, from supportive care to recovery will require regular travels to the University of Iowa Children’s hospital. During the chemo and bone marrow transplant Charlie and his Mother (Tanya) will be staying together at the hospital. His father (Michael) and his two older sisters (Kaylie Price 12, Kaycee Price 10) will be staying in Cedar Rapids trying to maintain regular school and work schedules, visiting during weekends, and during more difficult days in Charlie’s process.



Any support provided will go to the following:

Offset Medical Costs
Travel to and from Hospital visits.
Any unforeseen costs associated to treatment.
If any donated funds remain at end of process they will be donated to University of Iowa Children’s Hospital.


Thank you for any assistance you are able to offer the Price family as they support Charlie in fight against S.A.A.