Three Years Ago

Three years ago, on what was probably a beautiful Northwest Autumn day much like today, a cell in Alex's Thymus Gland divided. This was a very common, routine and quite frequent occurrence in a three and a half year old. When this particular cell split, through a process called Mitosis, a simple switch that controlled cell division was damaged.

Normally, an immune response would commence, and this defective cell would be destroyed, and absorbed back into the body. However, this cell divided and divided again. Unlike the other T-cells in his body, this cell and it's descendants did not die off after a few days, or weeks.



No one knows why Alex's immune system failed to recognize this cell. No one knows how this destructive cancer T-cell deceived his body. One cell became two, then four, eight, sixteen, and so on. All we do know, is that by the time we noticed that something was wrong, billions of those cells had gathered a formidable alliance to end Alex's life. It was a suicide mission, in that once Alex's heart stopped beating, their life would end too.

The mass that was formed by these billions of cancer cells was doubling in size every 24 to 48 hours. When his cancer was diagnosed just two months later, he was less than two days away from suffocating in his sleep.

We fought this cancer. We fought hard. We poisoned our son in order to save his life. Alex took pills, received shots, had surgeries, endured nausea, all to eradicate EVERY SINGLE cancerous cell in his body.

In November of 2010, Alex took his last Chemo pill, and we said "good riddance" to cancer.

Or so we thought.

Somewhere along the line, during Alex's treatment, one of his Chemo drugs caused a genetic mutation in the blood cells we were trying to save. A chromosomal translocation involving his 4th and 11th chromosomes, altered a gene called MLL - and his blood cells started dividing uncontrollably again. Within five months of finishing treatment for Lymphoma, we were told that Alex needed a bone marrow transplant to cure him. His spleen was engorged just about to the point of rupturing with white blood cells, he was severely anemic, and had almost no platelets.

I want everyone to stop for a second and re-read that paragraph. The CURE for his Lymphoma *directly* CAUSED his Leukemia. The CURE caused his secondary cancer. Radiation and high-dose Chemo along with a volunteer donor for his new marrow was his only hope for survival.

Alex has his new marrow, and is in the throws of engraftment, and radiation poisoning as I type this. He has seven pumps directing medicine, and blood products into his body to support him while the new marrow painfully attaches to his bones, to take over blood production.

All of this pain and suffering from the Leukemia, ALL of it could have been avoided, if the cure for his Lymphoma did not cause the genetic mutation. But it did, and it is a damn good drug in the arsenal to fight blood cancers. But it is not good enough. We need a cure that uses our own body to fight off cancer cells. Our bodies make them every day - and yet, we don't all get cancer. We all don't have to spend our 1st grade school year in a hospital, terrified of any type of bacteria or virus. We don't all have to writhe in pain as new marrow implants in our bones. We don't all have to push a morphine button to get relief.

It only takes one cell to divide incorrectly to start this chain of events. One cell, out of billions and trillions of cell divisions that take place in your body. One cell to devastate a family, and send loved ones into a nightmare.

Only science and research, the type that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society funds, can make cancer curable. Only money can fund that research. Please help us fund research to cure blood cancers. The cures we have aren't good enough.

Please donate to our Light the Night Team, Warriors 4 Alex, or go to this link, scroll to the bottom, and join our team and walk with us on October 1st.