Kameron Update: A New Challenge

For those of you who have been following our journey, and for those who are newly joining us, we recently announced a devastating medical diagnosis we received for Kameron. As you can tell, it has been quite some time since we last posted here on our adoption blog. Kameron has been doing great. He is an incredible son. So funny. He literally has all of us constantly cracking up. He has handled the COVID-19 pandemic, all the challenges that have come with it, and anything high school could throw at him like a champion! He is getting good grades and has dreams to join the Air Force some day and fly the drones.

About 3 months ago, Kameron started complaining of some minor right knee pain. He didn't injure it or anything, it just showed up. For those of you who don't know our family, I (his mother) am a Physician Assistant. When I examined his knee, other than some minor swelling things seemed fine. I tried a neoprene sleeve and Ibuprofen. These helped, but his pain did not go away. After 6 weeks of persistent pain, I called our sports medicine doctor, and made him an appointment during Spring Break. 

We met with the doctor and he did a detailed knee exam and took an x-ray. The doctor agreed, his exam was normal. He looked really close at the x-ray where Kam said he was hurting and noticed a slight irregularity to the bone. The radiologist favored it to be benign (IE: no big deal) but advised we get an MRI, out of an abundance of precaution. Two days later Kam had his MRI. We learned quickly after, that the MRI was concerning for a primary bone tumor. What we didn't know was which kind. After a whirlwind couple of weeks he had a bone scan, bone biopsy, and a CT scan of his chest, abdomen and pelvis. It took a week and a half for Kameron's pathology results to come back from the Mayo Clinic:

Osteoblastic Osteosarcoma- High Grade. 

For more information: (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/sarcoma/osteosarcoma)

To say we were devastated by this news, is a given. Thankfully, as far as we understand, Kameron is considered in the earliest stages-- Stage II. No cancer has spread to a detectable level. 

This past Monday we met with his oncology team. He has the kindest of doctors and support team. We had met his lead oncologist, Dr. Hansen, almost 11 years ago to the date, as he was the on-call pediatrician when our son Toby was born. I remember him joking as we took our newest son home, "Well, I hope I never see you again." We laughed. And we hoped so too. Fast forward, and as we meet him again, he says, "I am so sorry you have to meet me again." 

We learned that Kameron would be admitted to the hospital the next day (Tuesday). He will need to undergo extensive baseline testing, chemotherapy, and a surgery. The plan is he will undergo 10 weeks of chemotherapy, surgery, then additional chemotherapy. Yesterday, he had a port-a-cath placed which will help deliver him medicine to help fight this cancer. Today, Wednesday, they have fully hydrated him and are beginning his first round of chemotherapy.

Our family has decided to pursue a second opinion. Not because our team out here isn't great. They are wonderful! We know the general national odds of successful treatment for Kameron's type of cancer are about 66% or so. University of Texas MD Anderson in Houston is known for being the national leader (#1) in cancer treatment and research. Their sarcoma program is 80% successful. At some point, once we can get all the insurance hoops aligned, we will travel out there for further evaluation. 

While many patient's facing such a hard diagnosis feel isolated, we have been blessed, supported, and loved on by so many in our community. Y'all have been inventive and wonderful despite COVID precautions making things extra difficult these days. Bless you. We have felt your love. For those asking what they can do to help, we genuinely don't know yet. But we have put you on our list of people to reach out to when needs arise. It takes a village, and we love our tribe deeply. You showed up and continue to show up! Please continue to pray for Kameron and our family. We firmly believe that prayer is what moves the hand of God. We have one heck of a tenacious fighter in Kameron.