Trenton's Journey

DIAGNOSIS

On Monday, March 7^th, 2005, Trenton had a golf ball size lump appear under his left arm. He saw one of his pediatricians at Dunwoody Pediatrics on Tuesday who recommended that Trenton see a pediatric surgeon. Mom & Dad took him to see Dr. Julie R. Glasson, M.D. and she said it looked like an infected, enlarged lymph node caused by Cat Scratch Fever. Trenton was put on antibiotics and told to have Mommy & Daddy bring him back in 2 weeks for further evaluation.

Trenton celebrated his 1^st birthday on the following Sunday, March 13^th. It was a happy day. Little did the family know what awaited them.

On Wednesday March 16^th, he had his previously scheduled 1-year check-up with his regular pediatrician, Dr. A. Gerald Reisman. When Dr. Reisman evaluated him, he was concerned about the lump and said it was getting no smaller and wanted them to have additional blood work done, which was scheduled for the following Friday.

After an all day visit to the lab on Friday, the results of the blood work and ultrasound were reported back to Dr. Reisman with ‘concerned’ results. He then scheduled them to report to the emergency room at Scottish Rite hospital that night for additional blood work and a chest x-ray. The doctor also wanted a cat scan immediately, but being that Trenton was only a year old, he would need an anesthesiologist and they were not there on Friday nights. Therefore, the E.R. had the results of both the additional blood work and chest x-ray results immediately to Dr. Reisman and Dr. Wasaluski from the Pediatric Oncology Group, it was clear that something was wrong.

So, in the cold confines of the emergency room sometime around 11:30 p.m., the family was told the news that no family ever wants to hear….your son has CANCER. The initial diagnosis was Neuroblastoma. Trenton was directly admitted into the 3^rd Floor Cancer floor to begin his full diagnosis. A series of grueling tests were run and it was determined that Trenton had a solid mass tumor in his chest and neck.

On March 21^st he underwent surgery to have a portion of the tumor under his arm removed for a biopsy. Since that came back positive for disease, they removed ¾ of the tumor under his arm. At the same time they took some bone marrow for testing and Trenton had an External catheter (also known as a VISCATH: BROVIAC®, HICKMAN®) put in for the purpose of receiving medication and blood and also for taking blood and bone marrow for testing.

That afternoon his oncologist Louis Rapkin, M.D. informed us that the frozen section taken from the tumor (preliminary report) and the rest of the tests confirmed that Trenton indeed had Stage IV Neuroblastoma with High Risk. He then scheduled to meet with the family on March 23rd to lay out his plan for treatment.

Please see my “Treatment” page for formal details of my planned treatment. Not that I AM TOO HAPPY about all this, but I know that Mommy and Daddy are making all the right decisions for me to be CURED of this HUGE OWIE!!!