A Valorous Voyage with Noah

A note from Noah's Mom:

One year ago Noah broke his femur in the most minor of skateboarding accidents. It honestly didn’t make sense how! It snapped into three pieces and he was rushed to the hospital. The following day they inserted a rod into his leg. Things were going well as far as recovery, however there was a spot in the fracture site that was “ new bone growth” but it still looked odd. We went to every physical therapy appointment, every follow up appointment, and Noah bounced back pretty amazingly! We went in 6/7/21 for his 6 month follow up and the “bone growth” looked odd, like really odd, but we were assured it was normal! 12/6/21 was our final appointment! Woohoo! We knew they would say he’s recovered 100%! But, boy were we wrong!

The spot that has looked odd 6 months prior was now HUGE! His surgeon said it was likely a benign cyst that rarely occurs and referred us for a CT scan and to an orthopedic oncologist, just to be safe. On Monday, she saw the orthopedic oncologist who was very concerned and had found a second tumor on the CT scan. They were very concerned that it was malignant.

Thursday, Noah had his biopsy and they sent it to pathology while he was still under. My best friend was with me when the surgeon called and said we needed to meet to make a decision. We rushed to meet him and he confirmed that the preliminary results of the biopsy in fact look like the tumors are malignant. We had to make the decision to insert a port for treatment, which we decided was necessary to begin treatment ASAP!

Noah did a PET scan and MRI yesterday and luckily they only found one other spot of concern in a lymph node near the groin area (by the second tumor in his hip socket). They believe the lymph node could just be a reaction from the biopsy, however they are still concerned.

Noah has been preliminarily diagnosed with non-metastatic Osteosarcoma, which is a rare bone cancer that is extremely aggressive. It accounts for only 3% of pediatric cancers. The tumors are “eating” or disintegrating his femur. We will be doing inpatient chemotherapy, however I have asked them to stain for a specific gene that could give him the option of doing an immunotherapy treatment later on ! We don’t know what will happen after round 1 of chemo, more than likely surgery to remove the tumors and possibly the lymph node, and then a second round of chemo.

Noah does NOT want pity, he does NOT want to talk about it (unless he starts talking about it first), and he does NOT want to be know as the kid with cancer.

He’s a fighter, however this is still taking its toll on him (and our family) emotionally.

We have had tremendous love and support from our family and friends, and I cannot thank you all enough!

Please continue to keep Noah in your prayers as he has an extremely hard road ahead! ❤️