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Sierra Vista, AZ
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As the baby of our family, Owen was born at 37 weeks gestation along side twin sister Kate. He was a sweet, gentle and loving baby with a beautiful smile and infectious laugh. Most of his early months were spent at home growing, learning and playing with his older siblings. Owen loved being part of his family. Whether it was playing Legos with his big brother Nathan, dress-up with big sister Harper or dancing to the Wiggles with Kate he just wanted to be included.
Two months prior to his 2nd birthday Owen started showing signs of concern. High unexplained fevers, absent gazing, trouble balancing and eventually daily throwing up led us to an early Monday morning check up with our pediatrician. After a short evaluation she could see that something was definitely wrong. She suspected intercranial pressure and sent us directly to our local hospital. After blood work and a CT scan the results revealed a large mass in the center of Owens brain. He was air lifted to a children's hospital 3 hours from home. Additional testing, MRIs and biopsies would identify his brain cancer as Pineal Blastoma. This extremely rare and aggressive tumor was already stage 4. A resection to remove the mass was our first plan of action. But, we almost lost our son the day of his surgery. This incredibly vascular tumor bled and bled as it was removed piece by piece. The blood loss could not be stopped. The resection to remove the tumor was successful but the operation almost cost Owen his life.
Weeks of recovery and rehabilitation led us to the next phase of his protocol, chemotherapy. Whatever cancer was left behind had to be dealt with, or at the very least slowed down. For the next 3 months Owen was inpatient every 3 weeks for treatment. During this time his stem cells were harvested and another central line placed in his chest. After the holidays Owen began another series of high dose chemotherapy treatments followed by three rescue stem cell transplants meant to boost his immune system and help his counts to recover. These high dose, toxic chemicals would prove effective against his cancer but only for a little while. Only 7 weeks after Owen was declared “no evidence of disease” following a clear MRI, his cancer came BACK. What began as one solid mass tumor in his brain, was now 10-12 small and large tumors throughout his brain and spine. This, just 48 hours after our son, an ambassador for the Relay for Life (an American Cancer Society fundraiser) had been honored and celebrated as a “survivor”. Owen had relapsed.
The morning the cancer revealed itself to us again was just like any other. Coffee, news, breakfast, cartoons.... But Owen had slept in. He was tired we thought from playing at the park the day before. But when he finally awoke and got out of bed, he couldn't walk. He was shaky and unstable. I remember my husband calling out to me from the bedroom. The sound of worry and urgency in his voice. I stopped what I was doing in the kitchen and headed towards the hall. That's when I saw him. Owen was struggling to stand. I stopped there in the doorway and sat down on the floor and sobbed. I knew what had happened. My instincts hadn't failed me before although, I prayed desperately that this time I was wrong. We called the hospital to report his symptoms to his doctors, they told us to come in immediately. We packed in slow motion. We didn't want to go back. We knew what this meant. Couldn't we have just one more day of innocent optimism? But the testing began again. ID bracelets, white sheets, lines accessed and fluids started. Weight and height measured, blood drawn and vitals recorded. It had only been 7 weeks? The news of our admission started to travel. At first down the halls and out the doors but then to our hometown to neighbors, family and friends all across the country. We had always kept everyone “in the loop”. It was a careful but conscious decision we made early on in Owens diagnosis to share his journey with the everyone. To share our good days and our bad. What started off as just a few followers quickly grew. We knew we would need their prayers and they would need our updates. But no one was prepared for this news. We had all fought so hard to beat this awful disease, especially Owen. And now it was back.
