Autologous Transplant

So now that we know Ian has Medulloblastoma, malignant brain cancer, what do we do now??? We met with Ian's primary pediatric oncologist at the Mountain State Tumor Institute and he tells us the plan. Since Ian is too young to undergo radiation therapy for his cancer, it would do significant irreversable damage, the plan is for Ian to undergo an Autologous Transplant. This treatment is relatively new with regard to treating Ian's type of cancer, however in the studies they have done so far it has shown to be pretty successful in treating this type of cancer. Ian's lumbar puncture and bone marrow extraction come back and they show that his cancer has not spread. An additional MRI of Ian's head and spine the day after his tumor resection, showed no signs of tumor growth on his spine and no sign of residual tumor on his brain. All of this news means that Ian is in the best possible position if you are going to have a diagnosis of brain cancer. Nevertheless, the journey to remission and eventually cure will not be easy or without scares.



The plan is for Ian to start induction chemotherapy at St Lukes. He will have three 21 day cycles of low dose chemo and when that is completed he will begin his three cycles of high dose chemo with stem cell transplant at Primary Childrens Hospital in SLC.



Ian is currently in the middle of cycle 2 of his low dose chemo and doing pretty well. The first round of chemo seemed to be a little harder on him. In the middle of his first cycle we had to make a run to Primary Children's Hospital so that Ian's stem cells could be harvested for later transplant. He was admitted a few days earlier than they had planned to, because he was running a fever and also because his labs showed he needed a red blood cell transfusion. It was a little scary to watch him not feel well and not be able to make it better. His stem cell harvest was a great success and they were able to collect all they needed in one round. Ian was so amazing, he was able to lay still for five hours while the harvesting was going on. I suppose it helped that he had a huge catheter in his femoral artery that probably hurt if he moved too much! Ian was released the next day and we headed home to Mt Home.



On a side note, Ian lost all his hair while he was at Primary Childrens. He sure looks good bald. His hair was coming out in clumps and so I asked the nursing staff for some clippers and I shaved his head. What didn't come up with the clippers, we took off with medical tape. Through every new step Ian has been such a trooper. I admire him and love him more than I can adequately express!