We are shaving our heads to raise money for childhood cancer research! Did you know that kids' cancers are different from adult cancers? It's true. And childhood cancer research is extremely underfunded. So we decided to do something about it by raising money for cures.
We adopted Hezekiah when he was 14 months old. A month before his 2nd birthday, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer (hepatoblastoma). Basically, he had a tumor the size of a nerf football growing on his liver and the cancer had metastasized into his lungs. We were told his chances were very poor and it was unlikely he would survive. After 6 chemotherapy cycles, and surgery to remove any remaining lung nodes, the doctors were ready to attempt to remove the main liver tumor. They placed Ki's name on the transplant list, because they really didn't think they could save his liver. But after waiting a month on the transplant list, no suitable donor livers had become available, and they decided we couldn't wait any longer. Our daughter Katie volunteered to donate part of her liver, and the surgery went forward. During the operation, the doctors felt inspired to approach Ki's liver from a different direction, and were able to remove the tumor and still save enough of Ki's liver (about 1/4) so he didn't need the transplant. It was a miracle. Then, after Ki recovered enough, he endured a few more cycles of chemotherapy, and honestly, we worried that he wouldn't survive the chemo. He was so skinny and weak and listless, and his kidneys stopped working for a while. But he slowly gained strength, and eventually even his hair grew back.
Today Ki is a happy ten year old, and doesn't even remember being sick. We are so grateful to the doctors and nurses and researchers and donors who made our son's treatment and recovery possible. However, he does have a hearing loss from the chemotherapy and wears hearing aids and has neuromuscular issues as a result of the chemotherapy. That's why we continue to support childhood cancer research, because the drugs that saved Ki's life were created for adult physiology, not children's, and we want to help other children to not only combat cancer but come of the battle healthy and whole!