Chase – Page 2 – CHASE AWAY CANCER

Keeping It Interesting

This one… he likes to keep it interesting, doesn’t he? We spent yesterday morning talking with his endocrine team after some really wild labs.

Chase’s numbers are suddenly kind of crazy and it could be for a lot of different reasons, but the most important and immediate concern is getting his levels back under control – and quickly.

You see, the longer his levels are all over the place, the more likely his thyroid-free body is to create a favorable environment for thyroid cancer re-growth – in his lymph nodes, especially. [spoiler alert: we *super* don’t want that]

So for now, the plan is to make immediate changes to the medications that are helping his body regulate things, and then we re-test everything in a few weeks.

As a parent who walked into this childhood cancer world under the auspices of a brain tumor diagnosis, waiting to re-test is a terrifying prospect because brain tumors often grow incredibly quickly and hours to days can make a huge difference in the end result. But… as Chase’s [very patient] endocrine team has had to remind me many times over the last four years: thyroid cancer is a different cancer with its own unique schedule of growth – in that way, at least, it is a far more gentle cancer.

So we sit for these weeks until the re-test and trust Chase’s weary body and his levels to the One who knows him best.

Moment by moment.

Number 33

Early tomorrow (Monday) Chase will be undergoing (what I believe will be) his 33rd MRI.

Because of the duration and requirements of this test, Chase will be sedated and at the hospital for much of the day. The ability to sedate is a precious mercy for his overstimulated brain and we are thankful.

While Chase sleeps, the medical imaging and radiology teams will analyze every aspect of his whole brain and spine before they send it out to his neurosurgery and neuro-oncology teams. Almost eleven years of unceasing vigilance… such is brain cancer, as many of you know too well.

We are so thankful for all the amazing teams who surround our fighter, and we’d also very much appreciate prayer for his body and heart as he goes under once again.

On Monday evening, he will come home and rest and then we go back to the hospital on Wednesday to meet with the Neurosurgery team and talk results.

Choosing hope.

Moment by moment.

*Chase in the hospital Sky Garden area, March, 2023*

THANK YOU

Dear ones, as Chase lay asleep last night, just short of the ten o’clock hour, we quietly crossed over the $10,000 mark. In less than 24 hours, no, in barely half that time, the Chase Away Cancer community and friends gathered OVER $10,000 for Lurie Children’s Hospital and the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation in honor of Chase’s 13 years!

Did you hear that? Did you read it, because I want to say it again… in 2022, with inflation and illness and sadness all around us, you quietly and efficiently added thirteen to thirteen to thirteen over and over again until it was thousands and thousands!

He came to find me at my computer right before his dad tucked him in and wrapped in his gingerbread man pajamas, he leaned over the screen. “How did we do?”

“They did it, Chase. For you… Ten thousand dollars…”

And last year, he gasped and jumped up and down, but this year, his eyes got wide, a smile appeared on the edge of his lips, and then he bent his head to my shoulder with a long sigh of relief and a single word.

“Good.”

And isn’t that just the heart of it sometimes? We put our heads down, rest from the fight, take a deep breath, and sit with the good – even if only for a moment – because there is always good to be had, especially now, in the Advent of the Best.

And dear ones… this was a VERY GOOD THING that happened this Monday, the 12th of December. We rested for a moment and we hope and pray that these beautiful, amazing donations help others rest longer and easier farther along.

Looking forward with great hope, from the bottom of our hearts –

THANK YOU

Moment by moment

13×13 – “$13 For 13 Years” – aka: Chase’s Birthday Fundraiser

Monday, December, 12, 2022 –

By all rights and data, our precious Chase should have never seen a 3rd year, let alone a 13th birthday! Yet, here we are and Chase still lives and breathes joy (and sass) into our family and the world around him.

Once again this year, Chase asked that for his birthday fundraiser, all donations be equally divided between Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation.

And honestly, we can’t think of a more fitting plan! Lurie has brought Chase life more times than we can count, and the Rizzo Foundation has instilled so much hope – and Hope and Life go hand in hand in so many precious ways.

So after much discussion with our Lurie and Rizzo families, THIS PAGE was put together. All the funds will rest there, so we can see a grand total, and then when all is said and done, the Rizzo Family will write a check for half of the total, on Chase’s behalf, to Lurie Children’s – because of YOU, dear ones!

Would you consider making a donation? You can give $13 (or a multiple of 13…or more!) in honor of Chase’s 13 years. Every dollar counts – and it feels like it counts double this year – as the dollars will go to help a child like Chase and a family like ours – often in their most stressful, heartbreaking moments – both in the hospital with Lurie and around the country with ARFF.

With your help, we can contribute to research, resources and encouragement for so many children like Chase.

On behalf of the fighters and families supported by Lurie Children’s Hospital and the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation…

THANK YOU.

**PLEASE feel FREE to share the fundraiser link far and wide!!**

Of Insurance, Hard Things, and TEN YEARS MORE…

It’s been a while and it’s been hard to put into words…
This almost done Fall has been a strange, stretching time filled with both wonderfully normal things, and hard, intense growing things – or, at least I hope we’re growing from them.

Some weeks ago now, we began a struggle to have Chase’s insurance continue covering a couple of his medications.
I will forever be thankful that we weren’t fighting for an anticonvulsant (a seizure med – without which, we’d all be in really big trouble), but one of the things we were fighting for was the medication that helps him with his executive function. And without it…? Everything is just MORE. There’s more energy and laughter, yes, but there’s also more anger, frustration and sadness too. And it’s all coming quicker – shot from a damaged and dis-regulated brain – faster than Chase or any of us can handle.

We have been given so much grace and peace to do this thing. And yet, all the other things that don’t get done during this season – that’s where it hurts. That’s where and when the caring for our sweet boy pulls at whatever is left of our patience. It’s a weird in-between place where we know everything will be okay some day, but today is not that day. So we breathe, beg for extra grace, and walk… moment by moment, knowing as hard as it is for us, it’s equally, if not exponentially harder for Chase himself.

…and yet, dear ones, even as intensely weary as this season is, even as we liaison with his doctors and watch him carefully for signs of liver and heart issues until the January MRI, dear ones… tomorrow, Monday, December 12th, Chase Stratton Elliot Ewoldt will be thirteen years old. An actual teenager.

In some ways, it’s a very strange thing because his chronological age will be 13, but his intellectual age is a sliding scale… and the age of his heart and bones after all that he’s seen and done…? It’s got to be near 90, if it’s a day.

But I remember so clearly the moments at that first hospital conference table when we talked about the miracle it would take to get him to his third birthday. That third birthday was the goal…and while all the words were positive and hopeful, I felt it in my heart like I could see it in their eyes…nobody expected him to see the day.

So, to see the day…plus TEN YEARS MORE…?

That feels like an incredible moment in the hard journey. And we are treating it as such.

So watch this space all Monday… “$13 for 13 years” celebration kicks off here and I’m so excited to see how our celebration of Chase can impact life for so many others like him. *watch for the donation link in the morning!*

Looking forward with great hope…
MbM.