About Me
- Name: Ryan
- Location: Athens, Ga, United States
Our son Ryan was diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma in 2004. In 2007, my wife Missy was diagnosed with stage 2 triple negative breast cancer. On July 8th, 2009, Missy lost her battle to this horrible disease. 2 days later, on July 10th, Ryan also lost his. Together forever, they both watch over our family now from the heavens above. Below is our families journey through Ryan's treatments, along with the joy and laughter we tried to instill into our daily lives. Those days helped us all cope with the pain and suffering that comes with cancer and it's deadly treatments. Both Missy and Ryan endured high doses of chemo, radiation and surgeries. Over 150 nights spent in the hospital and many, many more days. More transfusions than I could count. Yet both Missy and Ryan took on each day with a positive attitude and warm smile for all their friends. We miss them terribly. They will always be a shining light in our lives.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
What do we consider “Good News”?
A late afternoon doctors visit is when we officially learned that Ryan's latest CT and MIBG scans were clear as a bell. Thank you God and good medicine! Dr. Anderson will be sending us 2 side by side comparisons, one of Ryan's bones (the mibg scan), and one of his tumor (the ct scan) from June 04 and then the latest one in April 05. Clearly, even to the layman, both scans show how effective the protocol Ryan has endured can wipe out one of the most aggressive cancers known to children of his age.
We began with devastating odds of around the 30% mark and now find ourselves nearing 50%, the upper reaches of Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. One very strong young boy's fight to not only fend off this cancer, but simply come through an extreme therapy treatment with the smiles, vigor, and a will to do what ever is asked of him by his doctors without complaint.
But after all the sighs of relief about the scan outcome were over, we ask ourselves, where have we really gotten to? Is this a day to celebrate? sort of. But would anyone be happy if a doctor had given your child even a 90% chance?
So we will be here, helping Ryan fight the battle and praying for the day our doctors deliver the real words we are after, “Ryan is cured”. I guess the point I'm driving at is that we still need your prayers, we need your resolve to continue over the next few years to see Ryan through to his CURE.
Thank you to each and everyone of you for supporting Ryan and our family, you'll just never know how much that means to us.
