Let's Help Andrew Lane Beat Cancer!

Hi Everyone!

This is Andrew Lane. And he is fighting a very rare form of cancer called, LCH - Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis.  Fortunately for my sweet little boy, this type of cancer is curable! But the road to recovery is very long and very painful and is unexpectedly getting very expensive for our family. We were reluctant to make a GoFundMe account, however, as our family car makes the trip up to the Children's Hospital two hours one way multiple times a month the poor vehicle isn't going to last much longer, nor the legs to the desk that is holding up most of the medical bills that we can't pay right now, never mind those house repairs and such. We all know life has a way of catching up to you after you've said, "I'll get to that later" so many times. Don't get me wrong, my husband, Joe, works very hard and he's a proud man. But he's also had to take quite a bit of time off of work to help out with Andrew's treatments and driving us into town to the Children's hospital. I am a homemaker, the stay-at-home mom, the domestic goddess as some would say. Four years ago I broke my foot camping with my boys and the Cub Scouts and since that surgery to repair it I've been dealing with terrible nerve damage rendering me unable to work. So up until now we've made the one parent working thing really happen.

I was raised to earn everything I have, and not to ask for handouts. So I guess I'm trying to convince myself more than you that this isn't me asking for a handout, this is my family and I asking for your help for my son.

Let me explain his story, and you can decide for yourself if you can help.

In third grade Andrew was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of Autism. Here's a link (http://www.autism-society.org/what-is/aspergers-syndrome/ ) to a page that gives you more information on what Asperger’s Syndrome is if you have any questions. This has been a challenge for him socially as well as on a daily basis. Routines that you and I follow every day such as putting on a coat or getting a fork from a drawer can sometimes turn into confusion for him. So we have worked with therapists and learned ways of talking with him like eye contact and minimal changes. People, especially children on the autism spectrum do not do well with change at all.

Fast forward to June 2014. Andrew's 11 years old and is 5'1" tall and is having what his pediatrician calls "growing pains". I'm 5'10" and Dad's 6'4" tall, so we're all inclined to believe that. But the pains were only getting worse. Mostly at nights, he's up screaming and crying at the top of his lungs. I kept taking him back to his doctor and one time we were told he "pulled his butt muscle". I built a fort in the family room for his little brother, Josh, so they could both fall asleep watching movies, hoping anything could help even distract with the pain. But nothing was working. After seeing two other doctors and getting the same results, my husband and I thought maybe it was a plea for attention, possibly from the autism. So I scheduled Mommy and Son dates! Movies and Ice Cream, The Library and the Park, we even went to a cat shelter and helped love on all of the kittens. (Andrew has a sweet obsession for cats, especially orange tabby cats!) No dice though. We were all at our wits end and my poor baby was just day after day crying and crying.

November, 2014. Andrew was playing basketball in P.E. class with the other boys, and as he reached up to make a basket, he howled out a scream that sent the coach racing straight towards him. The call from the nurse was frantic and I could hear my son crying hysterically in the background. She said his shoulder was in so much pain and he couldn't move it. I picked him up from school and drove him directly to his doctor's office where I told them they would x-ray it and it wasn't growing pains anymore.

That x-ray started everything. I wish I had pushed for it sooner. In a way I blame myself for not. Could he have avoided all of that, all of this if I had? I think so. And that's okay. If I choose to blame myself, that's okay.  That night the doctor called us and said there was a "fuzzy" spot on the x-ray, and to pack a bag with a few nights worth of stuff and head over to Texas Children's Hospital. The word "scared" doesn't even begin to cover it. There they ran quite a few tests and that's where we learned it may be an active lesion.  Next came more tests. Pet scans, scans with radioactive dye put through his bloodstream, loads of x-rays.

December 15th he went in for a surgical biopsy in his left shoulder. They took a piece of the active legion that was growing between the shoulder bones, currently breaking his clavicle. Not broken - breaking. He had been walking around with a breaking clavicle bone. Keep in mind; he's still 11 years old too. That biopsy determined that it was in fact Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. Here's a great link to a page on what LCH is and how this very rare (1 in 200,000 people a year) but curable cancer is treated. (http://www.histio.org/lchinchildren#.VNEquyvF-Ck ) 





January 6th, 2015 Andrew went back into surgery and had a port put into his right side of his chest which would allow him to get his chemotherapy treatments for the following year and three months. (A port is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin that connects the port to a vein.) This was exceptionally painful he said, and he's still in a lot of discomfort from it.  Wasting no time, the day after was his first chemo treatment. He gets day 1 at the hospital then days 2-5 at home done by myself, and then he's home free from it for 2 weeks. Then rinse and repeat. Sadly, the chemo makes him very ill. By day 4 he was a cold, pale lump on the couch and wouldn't eat a single thing. Day 5 he was vomiting everywhere.

January 28th was his second round of chemo and this time he was even sicker, rendering him in the Emergency Room twice in five days per the oncologist's orders.





February 18th is his third round and we're all dreading it, especially him. Its two days before his 12th birthday.  Somewhere between his first and second he also wound up with strep throat and throat ulcers as well. This poor boy can't seem to catch a break! He's missed a lot of school too. We received a letter in the mail from the school's lawyer because he's missed so many days.

Andrew has been incredible so far and he knows he has a very, very long road ahead of him. But we have each other, our family and our friends. And Andrew has hope. Hope that when he's feeling better he can get back to doing the thing that he loves best, and that's playing his violin! He used to take private lessons and hopes to one day pick that up once again. He's a natural and I'm not saying that just because I'm mom! Lindsey Sterling is his role model when it comes to violin and playing magnificent music.

 Money is tight these days, I completely understand. "Helping" a person in a GoFundMe account doesn't always mean donating money. Yes, that would help us the best, definitely! But if you can't, then maybe pass this along and someone else might be able to help as well. Awareness also helps more than you know. Andrew's 8 year old brother has been dealing with bullies on his school bus calling Andrew "Cancer Boy" among other unimaginative names. Josh, his brother, stood up that day and planted both feet firmly in the isle while refusing to move until the driver spoke to them and made them stop. He made such a scene that the other children began joining him, and stood in the isle as well, forcing the driver to pull over and reprimand the two boys for their verbal abuse.

Cancer Boy? More like Superman.