Relapse

As many know, Cam relapsed earlier this year. There was a small area in his scans that became slightly brighter but nothing of any size or mass. We decided that we’d use chemo and immunotherapy to see if they could assist in fighting off the “bad cells” as Cam calls them. They did a good job in holding any growth, but the chemo was beginning to impact his counts and it was becoming more difficult for him to bounce back from cycles, so we pulled the rip cord on proton treatment.

While in remission we did more than our fair share of watching Harry Potter…even took a trip to Universal to see the Wizarding World. This disease is a lot like Voldemort. You think he’s dead…but before being vanquished, he went ahead and left behind f-ing microscopic hidden horcruxes. Once again, Cameron has been thrust back into treatment.

Cameron started his new regimen on Wednesday at Rady’s Childrens in San Diego. We came down on Monday and were able to get in just in time to see the fireworks looking towards Coronado.

As long as Cam is feeling well, we’ll try to be more active than we could in his past treatment. His previous protocol of high dose chemo with stem cell transplant did not allow us to leave the hospital for 6 months. On top of that, Cam was recovering from brain and spine surgery, that he had prior to starting his chemo protocol, which left him with the inability to stand or walk. He also dealt with a malfunctioning shunt that caused severe hydrocephalus and led him to sleep most days. This time around Cam did not need surgery and is walking (and even sometimes running) around so as long as he’s feeling well we plan to be as active as we can be over the next 6 weeks to take his mind off the treatment.

Last night, he was able to see his first professional baseball game - Padres against his Giants. We were able to catch the first 5 innings before he started to fade. We were in left field and had a home run hit right over our heads, and saw a nasty collision between 2 of the Padres players. Cam had the full experience and even tried his best to get a ball from the back up catchers after each pre-inning warmup.

Cam had to be up very early since he needed to get to his daily chemo infusion appointment before 7:15, and then heads to the proton center where he is sedated every day for treatment. The Childrens hospital for the infusion is about a 10-15 minute ride from our condo and the proton center is about a 10-15 minute drive from the infusion clinic. The proton center is right next to Miramar, so Cam gets to hear Maverick buzz the tower each morning.

This is his daily routine for the next 6 weeks, as long as he keeps his counts up. One of his brothers (Baden) will be heading down Sunday to hang with him for the next 2 weeks, so he is super excited and pumped to be with him vs. being stuck with his boring parents.

We are going nuclear on Voldemort. This was not an easy decision for us, but we know is gives Cam the best chance for cure.