Travel & expenses for Elliott's cancer treatment

Hey there everyone, first I would like to thank you for taking the time to look at this, our son Elliott was just 15 months old in march when we learned that he had a large (11x7cm) mass on his right kidney, after he underwent a CT scan it was determined to be a probable wilms tumor also known as a nephroblastoma. A week after diagnosis he went in for surgery to remove the tumor along with the right kidney, we were hopeful and understood this to be a fairly routine procedure and a very survivable form of cancer in most cases, however after over 6 hours of waiting outside the operating room we were informed that they were not able to remove the tumor because it had invaded the base of the colonic mesentery- the blood supply to his large intestine and his surgeon reported that not only had the tumor previously ruptured but it also had areas of very abnormal tissue he feared might be small blue round cell tumors, a rare form of sarcoma with an exceedingly low survival rate. They took samples of the tumor and let us know it would take several days to get a definitive answer as to what it was. I will never forget the horrible feelings of despair and powerlessness that I felt as we watched him wake up from the unsuccessful procedure. It was so incredibly difficult to accept that at the time our baby had what was essentially an inoperable tumor inside his body however, after several days passed we recieved the good news that it was a wilms tumor as previously thought and it had favorable histology. We could begin weekly courses of chemotherapy immediately to try to shrink the tumor enough for them to remove it. Fast forward to last friday (may 20th) his latest CT scan brought us the most amazing news, Elliot's tumor has shrunk by an unheard of 94% !!!!!! The chemotherapy protocol was incredibly effective and we are going in today (5/23) for surgery to remove the tumor and kidney.

After the surgery Elliott will need several more months of chemotherapy treatments along with radiation treatment but we are remaining hopeful and positive for his complete recovery by the end of the year.

Thank you for bearing with us through our story and I would like to let everyone know that we are incredibly lucky to have had almost all of his medical bills (so far) covered by insurance but we still have to travel nearly 1000 miles every month (sometimes more) for his treatments and of course with gas prices the way that they are right now it is becoming more and more costly every month and with him needing several more months of treatments this year our costs are far from over.

Thank you again for listening to our story, we will update everyone about how his surgery goes today

-Ian