Bryson Palmer
09/04/08
5 months old at diagnosis
Toledo, Oh USA
Toledo Childrens Hospital and Rainbow Babies & Childrens Hospital Cleveland
Bryson got a respiratory infection right after Christmas of 2008. During that first week of being sick he lost a lot of weight and started having huge vomits once or twice per day. After the respiratory infection cleared up he was still throwing up and not gaining weight back. I was very persistent, feeling that there was something just not right. We brought him to the pediatrician 5 times in 4 weeks and finally they admitted us for IV hydration, thinking he had a lingering stomach bug. That evening our world was turned upside down as the doctor at the hospital felt something hard on the right side of his abdomen. We went down for a CT scan and results came back an hour later that there was a large tumor; we immediately transferred to the pediatric oncology unit.
Since then Bryson has been through 6 rounds of high dose chemo, plus 1 round of chemo on the intermediate risk round (they thought at first he would be in that group until his N-Myc status came back amplified) He had his tumor resection on June 23rd 2009 and then proceeded to 2 stem cell transplants, one in August and another in October. He then went through 12 days of radiation and we are now undergoing antibody immunotherapy along with retnoic acid. He is currently (as of 04/01/10) on round 3 of 6. Bryson just got over a very bad line infection, where he went into septic shock and spent 9 days in the PICU. Thankfully he is a very very strong little boy. He is my Hero!
Bryson loves to play with anything that plays music and he dances along. He blows kisses and winks and makes all kind of funny faces to make you smile.