Light the Night

http://pages.lightthenight.org/oswim/PortlndL12/warriors4alex

Alex was only three and a half years old when we were blindsided by the terrible news that he had Lymphoma. We battled the beast for two years with intensive Chemotherapy. We watched as our boy swelled with steroids, and withered with chemo. His hair fell out, and there were days he was in too much pain to walk. He learned the names of all his medicines, and could pronounce them better than we could. We believed our nightmare had ended in November of 2010, when we watched Alex take his last dose of chemo.

In April 2011, we celebrated Alex's sixth birthday at a waterpark, with many friends and family. I tried to tell myself that the night sweats and bruising I saw on his young body were just evidence of a great time at the waterpark. One week later we were in the hospital emergency room learning that Alex had cancer again. At first we were told it was a relapse of his original cancer. Two days later, we learned that the Chemotherapy he received during treatment caused a genetic mutation, and he had a completely different cancer. The CURE for his Lymphoma CAUSED his LEUKEMIA.

Now, as a very high-risk Leukemia patient, our only option was a bone marrow transplant. The search began for a match, and one was found on the other side of the planet. While we waited for all the pieces to fall into place, we began a chemo regimen, to hold the Leukemia at bay. In September, while his friends were getting on the school bus, Alex was wheeled down to the radiation room for "conditioning". No parent should ever have to watch as their child is tied down, placed in front of a massive radiation machine, and then separated by a two foot thick lead and concrete door. We watched through a grainy video feed, as our now six year old sat perfectly still, watching a Scooby Doo video on a tv with strange colors and distortions from the massive doses of radiation. We watched as Alex was poisoned with radiation to kill his immune system and be ready to accept the donor marrow.

Radiation sickness followed, with mouth sores, burned skin, vomiting and exhaustion. Alex's donor marrow was flown across the world, and within 24 hours of harvesting, we watched as the marrow dripped from the IV bag into his veins.

The road to recovery was long and hard, but we are now one year post transplant, and Alex shows no evidence of disease, and is back in school, catching up with his peers. He is leading a "normal" seven-year-old boy life.  We are profoundly grateful for the research that has helped our son battle cancer - TWICE. However, until the cure cannot cause the disease, we have much more work to do.

Please consider donating to our Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night team: Warriors 4 Alex.

The cure isn't good enough - we must do better for our children, and other loved ones battling this horrid disease. Please donate TODAY

http://pages.lightthenight.org/oswim/PortlndL12/warriors4alex