Family and Friends,

On Thanksgiving day, 11/28/24, we found a small lump in Ethan’s armpit. It was about the size of a marble. We took him to the doctor on Monday 12/2 and she found 1 lymph node that was now about ping pong ball size and a couple other enlarged ones. On Wednesday 12/4, he had an ultrasound showing several enlarged lymph nodes, the biggest up to golf ball size. By Thursday 12/5 the lump had doubled in size and we took him back to urgent care. This doctor thought it may be an infection of some kind and gave us antibiotics. By Monday 12/9 the lumps were so large Ethan couldn’t put his arm down and it was starting to hurt. So back to urgent care we went. This time they admitted him to the hospital for all sorts of tests. The CT scan showed a large mass of lymph nodes stuck together. The next step was a biopsy. He was in the hospital from 12/9 to 12/13. We got the biopsy results on 12/17. He was diagnosed with Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. The good news is that because we pushed so hard for answers, it was caught at stage 2. Ethan had surgery to put in a central line on 12/26 and started chemotherapy that day in the hospital. We were there for 2 days and then home until 12/31. Back to the hospital for 5 days for inpatient chemo. He will be getting 5 days of chemo every three weeks until the end of May. His lymph nodes are already getting smaller! Ethan is handling all of this like a champ! There are definitely ups and downs and big adjustments to our whole lives. He has been in really good spirits through all of this. We would appreciate all of your good thoughts and prayers while we navigate this hard journey with Ethan. As you can imagine, his medical bills are growing by the day. Thankfully, both of our jobs have been very understanding with all of the time we need off for all the appointments and hospital stays! We would welcome any kind of help towards his medical bills. You never think it’s going to be your child and you would do anything possible to make it go away! Thank you❤️