I just received this update from Tamara, one of the officers who recently left HS-8 and is still back in San Diego, preparing to go to War College. In early December, one of our junior officers learned that his 2 1/2 year-old son had developed Stage 4 Neuroblastoma (a cancer of the adrenal gland). Nate, his wife Wendy, and their son, Cole, were soon accepted into the St. Jude's cancer treatment center in Nashville, TN, where they have been for over a month undergoing a very extensive and innovative treatment protocol for Cole. Nate's mom set up a care page for Cole, which is a web page where they provide updates on Cole's treatment and how they are doing as a family. Tamara pulled this latest update from the care page with some great news and a renewed request for prayer for Cole. Please read on for an amazing story and a dire need for God's amazing work. There is a link at the bottom with an invitation to join Cole's Care Page if you would like to keep up to date on his progress. God has done some amazing things in the Kaspar's lives and it's exciting to see Him at work.
January 22, 2007 at 09:15 PM CST
First a little background just so the numbers makes sense.
Cole has stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is when one of your adrenal glands turns into cancer. Stage 1,2, and 3 is different size tumors. Stage 4 is when the cancer has spread, to any degree. There are kids here with stage 4 neuroblastoma that have the tumor and cancer also in their liver, spine, brain, and bones. The only place that Cole's cancer had spread to was his bones. The nationwide survival rate for stage 4 neuroblastoma is about 33%, but it is important to remember that Cole's stage 4 is not nearly as bad as many other stage 4 cases. It is even more important to remember that Cole is not a number, and he is going to kick this cancer's ass.
OK, now for the numbers update.
When Cole first had his bone marrow tested (in San Diego), it came back that 70% of the cells were cancer. The test that they last Friday showed that now less than 1% of his bone marrow has cancer (yes, that's right, from SEVENTY percent, to LESS THAN ONE percent). Today they did a PET and CAT scan, and the tumor has reduced by 50% (once again, that's half the size that it was just a month ago). The doctor's words for the tests were "Well, they couldn't be any better." Even the radiologists were stunned when looking at his pictures today. They were shocked at how small the tumor had gotten in just a month's worth of treatment. It is easy to say that we are very happy about the news we got today. We had steak for dinner and Wendy is enjoying a nice whiskey drink.
Even with the results of these tests, the course of treatment is not going to change. We are going to be admitted to the hospital tomorrow and Cole will start 5 days of very high dose chemo. The treatment still is going to very dangerous and tough. This high dose chemo is going wipe out his ability to make his own blood cells and fight infection. It will also wipe out his appetite and he will lose even more weight. This fight is not even close to being over, but after round 1, cancer has stumbled back to its corner winded and battered. Cole 1, Cancer 0.
One other result of the test is that the tumor is now small enough to take out. They have to schedule the operating room for a full day when they do these tumor removals, and the first chance will be after this round of chemo. So expect Cole's surgery to be about 3 weeks from Tuesday.
I can't say thank you enough to all of the people who have been praying for Cole and spreading the word for prayer. I don't believe for a second that the results we got today are just because of the drugs. Thousands and thousands of people have been asking God to heal Cole, and He is listening.
This next week is going to be very tough as we go through our first experience with high dose chemo. We will have to learn an entire routine all over again, and Cole is not going to be feeling well at all. That will be hard to deal with since he has been doing so great over the past few days. We hope that this news encourages you to keep the prayers up and keep spreading the word. You are all helping.
Thank you again,
Nathan
You have to go to the first page and create a log in and password. You can forward this email to other folks, too.
<&http://www.carepages.com/ServeCarePage?cpn=ColeKaspar2007&extrefid=tlcinvite2>
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