March 2025 update

Elijah is doing good with therapy and responding well to the chemo's. He is needing radiation in a couple spots that should begin by April! The multiple trips weekly have really put a hole in the family's financial state. Mom has lost her job as the company she worked for decided to not work with Elijah's treatment plan. The family is needing help to stay in their home and keep the lights on.

This is Elijah, he is 16, and up until recently, he was happy and healthy. Elijah had a couple lumps on his neck that he showed his mom and within 6 days they almost tripled in size and a trip to urgent care followed. After urgent care ran some testing, they set him up for a ct scan and additional blood work, results were coming back possible cancer and they wanted him seen right away but in our area we do not have a pediatric oncologist. Mom wasn't waiting for answers and rushed Elijah to Iowa city children's hospital, where within a couple days the Dr.'s diagnosed him with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Further scans have been ordered and tests are showing a tumor on his heart that is the same size as his heart as well as fluid around his heart and possible cancer in his bone marrow. Fast forward to today, the day of his surgery to have a port placed for chemo and to do a bone marrow biopsy and the finance lady comes in right before procedure time and tells us that we need 23,000 upfront to cover costs or he cannot have surgery. Insurance has denied the claims for almost all procedures, the dr's have been requesting peer to peer meetings and aren't having much luck. Meanwhile his mom is missing work and struggling to keep up with day-to-day bills and travel expenses that are only going to get more costly as Elijah's care is moving to Springfield, he will have chemo at least once every 2 weeks for around 8 months. Elijah has been handling the idea of losing his hair roughly but still remains strong. He wants to get treatments going so he can see what his new normal looks like and get back to his after-school job. The family is banding together and showing so much support to their brother and also worrying about day to day expenses. Any donation collected will go towards medical treatments already billed, upcoming bills, travel expenses back and forth to appointments and anything else the family may need. Prayers are greatly appreciated and sharing of this fundraiser will help the family tremendously.

Week of Thanksgiving update: Elijah got surgery to put his port in!

12/4/24 Update Elijah has started his chemo and it's been going okay. We have had a week long stay with mom missing work all those days.

12/31/24 Update! Then end of 24 is here, wish it was the end of Elijah's cancer but soon we will get there!!! This holiday week we are spending it getting treatment, Elijah started his second cycle of chemo yesterday. He tolerated it pretty well, was very tired and nauseous afterwards lasting into the morning. Today he napped while getting today's chemo administered. Elijah was very optimistic that he would be able to keep his hair during treatments, after the 3rd round his hair started to fall out in clumps, we cut his hair down to about 2 inches and within a week the remainder hair started to fall out, so we shaved it the rest of the way down. Elijah has had many ups and downs this past month, and we are hopeful that he continues to respond to treatment in a good manner. The swelling on his neck has almost went away, you can feel it and its more like a marble size than baseball!