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Kayden's Story:
In January of 2023, Kayden turned 14, and a few days later he was on a plane to Canada to play Hockey for Team Alaska in the Arctic winter games. Kayden took a hit during one of the games and immediately started experiencing low back pain- something we thought was just a bruise. Kayden did not want to sit out the remaining games, he powered through as he was so excited to be in Canada playing hockey he didn’t want to miss the opportunity. When we returned Kayden’s back pain worsened, we chased what we were sure was a hockey injury until March, imaging, adjustments, PT, procedures, you name it- it would come and go. We started noticing Kayden was thinning out quite a bit, and would come home from school and nap pretty regulary- but again, he is a teenage boy so we didn’t think too much about it, his body was changing and he was growing. The middle of March Kayden’s hockey team was playing in State; Kayden was determined to play in these games also but when he was on the ice it was very apparent something was not right. That night Kayden’s back pain was so bad he could not sleep- we went to the ER for a second weekend in a row and I finally told them; something is not right a teenage boy should not be having this much pain and have such a sudden weight loss. I kindly told them, they weren’t sending us home, we were not leaving until we had answers. After hours in the ER, multiple scans/MRIs, labs etc, the labs were back and they informed us it appears that Kayden may have leukemia but the only way to know for sure was to do a bone marrow biopsy that had to be sent to Seattle and they could not do it until Monday so we were going to be admitted to the Children’s hospital and await Monday the results there after. Exactly 24 hrs after the bone marrow biopsy we had the results, Kayden had been diagnosed with cancer; A.L.L. we spent the next 29 days inpatient, (35 days total)As our world had just been completely rocked, we had no choice but to stay strong. Kayden underwent surgery to have his port placed and the next day he started his first chemo treatment, we had no idea what to expect. The staff at the Children’s Hospital at Providence was nothing short of amazing, they instantly made us feel like one big family, explained everything in ways we could understand and everyone was so very caring of Kayden (of course) but also to Kyale and I, our entire family, and all of our visitors. We believe there truly was no better place to be.As I am typing this now, we are almost 9 months in to treatment; Kayden has had weekly clinic visits, a handful of transfusions, countless IV, oral, IT, and injection chemotherapies, Lumbar punctures, and many more to come over the next 2-2.5 years, he has been so strong and positive throughout this journey, and we are so incredibly proud of him. Kayden has gotten back on skates quite a few times since diagnosis, and found a new love for golf which consumed most of his summer- he spent every day he could golfing with his dad and his buddies. He would finish an infusion treatment and head straight to the course or even after an inpatient treatment, he would have his dad bring his golf attire and golf clubs with him when he picked us up and they would head straight to the course. Never in a million years would I have imagined he would be having to go through this, but we believe he will come out stronger in the end, there’s no doubt and that wouldn’t be possible without all of the love and support. We aspire to provide hope and awareness for so many others.
