Meet Caleb.
From the family:
((Written in 2020))
In September 2019, our world was turned upside down. It started off as a regular day, our 10-year-old son, Caleb woke up and got ready for school. That morning, he complained of a stomachache and I shook it off expecting a call from the nurse later. Well that call came; he threw up and they called me to come get him. There was something different with Caleb when I arrived. He was not very responsive and was staring blankly at the wall in front of him. Being the baby of the family, this was unusual for him to not want a hug from Mom or respond to any questions. We cleaned him up and went on our way home, but Caleb was getting more and more unresponsive and now slurring. I decided to turn and go to the ER.
By the time we got there he was almost paralyzed. With some help, we got him to Triage and they thought he was having a seizure. This seizure lasted almost 2 hours and resulted in a weeklong stay at Children’s Hospital with test upon test and no answers. They found swelling in his right temporal lobe which was causing the seizures and sent us home with a watch and wait diagnoses. The thought was Viral Encephalitis or worse, Glioma. We had another MRI scheduled for December to check the status. It the area was not smaller, or something should repeat then we were looking at a biopsy. Fast forward to December 2019, he has another seizure and was rushed via Ambulance to Children’s. Now, we had no choice but to move forward with a Craniotomy.
December 27, 2019, Caleb was diagnosed with a Grade 3 Anaplastic Astrocytoma. The tumor is diffused with good brain tissue and is deemed inoperable. They removed what they could with the biopsy. He underwent 33 rounds of radiation in January/February 2020 and started Chemotherapy in March 2020. Due to the area being inoperable, we have no other options but to rely on Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy to keep the area stable. He is still going through Chemo until March 2021 and then he will do another year of maintenance Chemo. Caleb, now soon to be 12-year-old, is a Brave Young Man. He walks this journey without fear. He doesn’t cry or get sad. He simply says, “Let’s do this!”.
He is a true Warrior.
