One day, Back in October of 2010. I had left my boys behind with daddy, while I went to church. The boys had a simple cold for the 3rd time in october, seemed to never end that month.
3 hours I was away, I had come home to find Elijah Mainville my 3 year Old Son had grown some massive lymph nodes in his neck, within a span of 3 hours!
I freaked. When I had taken him to the Pediatrics Dr. He had told me just by the examination that they were just swollen lymph nodes, and that sometimes this does happen when a bacteria (fluid) get into lymph nodes. He gave us Anti bacterial medicine and sent us home, said they should decrease in a week.
3 weeks had gone by and after seeing the ped, DR over and over, and him telling us that Elijah was ok, he finally refered us to an ENT DR. who at first wanted tp up the dose of Meds we were already taking. in 3 days we were seen again, and the ENT DR started to get concerened that there was no results, he though in his mind "This could be something else" GEE YOU THINK?
So finally he ordered a biopsy to be done on the lymph node! I had a Gut instinct something wrong was going on (I mean these nodes were MASSIVE!) so I asked the Dr to Send the same Sample of the Lymph Node to Lucille Packards Childrens Hospital In palo Alto California! He complied with my request! In the mean time he was trying to diagnose what these nodes were doing. we came up with a few explinations as to like "CAT SCRATCH FEVER" number one because Elijah had a small cat scratch on his shoulder, on the same side as the swollen Lymph Nodes and when we get CSF our nodes tend to swell, so we had thought it ws that or it was a possibility it could be!
A week goes by, Elijah started getting a cold again, and this time he was producing a High fever! i kept it hidden (or down) with childrens tylenol, as when we treat all our kids for fevers! the next day after Elijah having a 102 temp we get a call from THE ENT DR, and the pathologist where we live could Not find anything, of course they did not test for Cancer, they dont have the practice obviously to do that extesnive research, as every pathologist SHOULD HAVE!! anyways, the same day I c got a call from DR CLAIRE TWIST from LPCH at stanford hospital saying they need to see us right away in the Blood Disease and Cancer center! Immidiatly my heart dropped into my stomach and I felt sick! with trying to keep a positive thought in my head, we proceeded to the hosptial with Elijah going for the ride.
On November 5th 2010, Dr Twist (whom is a Neuroblastoma specialist) said that the Pathologist At LPCH had found Cancerous Cells in his Nodes, and they would have to do extensive research to find out how much and where he has it. On this day he was proclaimed a Neuroblastoma Cancer child! This was the day of actual Diagnosis.
It was a tough day! Of course! We went home because Elijahs Fever was down and to normal when we were at Drs Office. They had told us about the protocols and procedures and what happens when he gets a fever, and for me to call if he had a fever! So comes the weekend and Elijah ends up having the 102.5 temp again, and they asked if we can come (drive 3 hours) to the ER in LPCH at Stanford.. ok so an overnight packing happened, and little sleep. A Quick drive to hospital.
It was so kaotic when we got there with Drs everywhere, nurses, Elijah being poked right and left for Blood draws and cultures etc etc. It was hard to comprehend al that was going on, this all happened so fast! He was soon admitted into a room and plenty of meds!
The next day we had talked with Drs. And they decided to go for the testing which included “Bone marrow scan and Biopsy” CT scan” MRI” another Lymph Node Biopsy in the neck, and a few more!
A week later (still in hospital) we found out the results and they were :
Neuro Blastoma Cancerours Tumors Stage 4 Cancer. And the reason It became stage 4 cancer is because he has a Massive Tumor growing in the skull ¼ of it growing on top all the way thru the BONE itself and ¾ of it at the bottom of the bone pushing On top of the brain (NOT A BRAIN TUMOR)!
He had massive cluster of cancerous tumors in his neck. And 90% of His Bone Marrow were covered in head to toe of small detectable tumors!
We quickly had started chemo therapy and the plan was 2 years of Chemo plus recovery chemo! This was the original plan! He would be getting chemo every 3 weeks (once a month basically) The first Night Of chemo (I stayed with Elijah in Hospital everyday) was the hardest for me, it was worse than the day we found out he had cancer.. As I watched them Hook him up to Chemo (the strongest kind of Chemo) I was hurting inside, and felt week and helpless, as a mom that’s the worst you can feel for your child! I cried so hard I can barley breath, this was truly the hardest night in my whole entire life knowing they had to inject POISON to kill this disease!
At the same time I felt the Spirit of God grow inside me, I instantly felt an overwhelming response of strength! I had chosen to NOT accept this! I will not accept sickness and disease in my Child. Jesus Christ had already been beaten and bruised and bled on the cross for our healing.!!! This was already done, I just knew I had to believe it and Accept the report of Jesus Christ and his Blood! So every Chemo Elijah had received from here on out (I laid hands on the bags of chemo and BLESSED each one)
We have had to have Thanksgiving in the cafeteria with family coming to visit! Not my ideal TG but you make due! Ronnie (my husband) had to take weeks off of works using up all his vacation time PPO and PTO and his sickdays (wait?) … ANYWAYS! Sleepness nights became a part of everyday living, and missing my older son CAYDEN who is 5 yrs old and has AUTISM! I have been an at home mom since I was pregnant, and this was also the hardest thing to do, is to have to sacrifice my time with my older son to be with Elijah! Ronnie had to become a Worker and a House Wife/Mom/ DAD in this process!
3 months into Chemo we noticed dramatic results of the Chemo, because of the Blessing of Christ he dramatically had his swollen lymph nodes decrease in size! Not only that, but he hadn’t gotten sick at all with this chemo he was receiving! (knocked on wood) – (the cross is the wood).
After knowing that his lymph nodes (tumors) in his neck had decreased the Drs wanted to find out if anything else was decreasing, so we went ahead and did more testing! The testing shown that the tumors were starting to decrease in size. Even the one in his skull. So we kept on path of chemo and changed his chemo meds on the 4th cycle (4th month) we were warned this chemo may make him sick, so we prepared as best as we could!
In the meantime things at home began to develop as far as community outreach was going! Elijahs story began to be told around the world for prayer! He story was on a tv evangelist prayer group, he was all over facebook (“Elijah Cancer support Group”), by word of mouth, friends in high placesd and friend in low places began to talk! Friend in other countries around the world started praying! Our count at 4 months after diagnosis was over 10,000 people praying for Elijah! CANCER NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO SURVIVE!! My little man became a celebrity per say. A benefit Dinner was held on Jan 15th 2011 for raising money for Elijah! After all that was said and done over 800 people had attended, had a few music groups and skits, and raised just about 18k! an overwhelming response! To this day we are still receiving money from people who are helping! Gods provision has not ended for us!
At the benefit dinner we had announced after all the testing that elijahs Tumors in his neck were 90% gone, and that Thursday before the dinner we had found out the Elijahs Bone marrow went from 90% covered to 0% covered! All the detectable tumors in Elijahs bone marrow had decreased to nothing!
The tumor in his skull had decreased 30% but is still resting on the brain with no puncture to the brain! YAY!!! God was doing amazing miracles in my son! People would look at Elijah and ask, if he is stage 4 why isn’t he sick? I would say, Let me tell you why!!?? Because it started with FAITH! Faith in Jesus. To even question God as to why, who, what, when where, and not even a possibility! See My beliefe is EVERY GOOD and perfect thing Comes from God, this is what the scripture says. I don’t Believe God gave us to this road to teach us a lesson or to tech us to learn how to have more Faith! But in this time of trouble and trials of sickness and diseases I have LEARNED to fall on Christ and trust him. We tend to limit God and what he can do. I know God can speak and it happens! So therefore I believe as I also see it happening!
Elijah, Last week 3/15/2011 had gone into surgery for a ENT surgeon to remove the tumors in Elijahs neck.. We had recieved EXRAYS on the tumors in his neck and we found out that the Tumors had grown around the corated artery leading to his brain, and 5 other nerves.. Of course this was upsetting because the risk the DR had to take to remove them was damagable to Elijah.. he could have Ruptured the nerves or corated artery cause stroke, brain damage or damage to any of these nerves!
Sooo... We prayed for Elijah to have a miracle!! When the Dr went into Elijahs Neck, The Dr was amazed at what he saw!! God had released the Tumors off the artery and nerves.. there is no damage to the nerves or artery!! and the dr put it in LAME MANS TERMS (It was a piece of Cake!!) he said!! well not really that easy but he cleared it all out!!!!!!
God had removed all the surrounding tumors off of everything! this was a true complete miracle straight from God himself! The drs were amazed!!!
After all the tests were done, we found out, that there was no evidence of Neuroblastoma anywhere in his body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE KNOW he is cancer free... Unfortunatly the Drs havnt claimed it yet, so therefore we must follow protocol (which would be wise to do so) and we are recieving (HIS OWN) Bone marrow stem cells infusion (aka transplant)!!!
He has been randomized to 2 transplants but after all is said and done, we wont have much to do afterwards!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!
3 hours I was away, I had come home to find Elijah Mainville my 3 year Old Son had grown some massive lymph nodes in his neck, within a span of 3 hours!
I freaked. When I had taken him to the Pediatrics Dr. He had told me just by the examination that they were just swollen lymph nodes, and that sometimes this does happen when a bacteria (fluid) get into lymph nodes. He gave us Anti bacterial medicine and sent us home, said they should decrease in a week.
3 weeks had gone by and after seeing the ped, DR over and over, and him telling us that Elijah was ok, he finally refered us to an ENT DR. who at first wanted tp up the dose of Meds we were already taking. in 3 days we were seen again, and the ENT DR started to get concerened that there was no results, he though in his mind "This could be something else" GEE YOU THINK?
So finally he ordered a biopsy to be done on the lymph node! I had a Gut instinct something wrong was going on (I mean these nodes were MASSIVE!) so I asked the Dr to Send the same Sample of the Lymph Node to Lucille Packards Childrens Hospital In palo Alto California! He complied with my request! In the mean time he was trying to diagnose what these nodes were doing. we came up with a few explinations as to like "CAT SCRATCH FEVER" number one because Elijah had a small cat scratch on his shoulder, on the same side as the swollen Lymph Nodes and when we get CSF our nodes tend to swell, so we had thought it ws that or it was a possibility it could be!
A week goes by, Elijah started getting a cold again, and this time he was producing a High fever! i kept it hidden (or down) with childrens tylenol, as when we treat all our kids for fevers! the next day after Elijah having a 102 temp we get a call from THE ENT DR, and the pathologist where we live could Not find anything, of course they did not test for Cancer, they dont have the practice obviously to do that extesnive research, as every pathologist SHOULD HAVE!! anyways, the same day I c got a call from DR CLAIRE TWIST from LPCH at stanford hospital saying they need to see us right away in the Blood Disease and Cancer center! Immidiatly my heart dropped into my stomach and I felt sick! with trying to keep a positive thought in my head, we proceeded to the hosptial with Elijah going for the ride.
On November 5th 2010, Dr Twist (whom is a Neuroblastoma specialist) said that the Pathologist At LPCH had found Cancerous Cells in his Nodes, and they would have to do extensive research to find out how much and where he has it. On this day he was proclaimed a Neuroblastoma Cancer child! This was the day of actual Diagnosis.
It was a tough day! Of course! We went home because Elijahs Fever was down and to normal when we were at Drs Office. They had told us about the protocols and procedures and what happens when he gets a fever, and for me to call if he had a fever! So comes the weekend and Elijah ends up having the 102.5 temp again, and they asked if we can come (drive 3 hours) to the ER in LPCH at Stanford.. ok so an overnight packing happened, and little sleep. A Quick drive to hospital.
It was so kaotic when we got there with Drs everywhere, nurses, Elijah being poked right and left for Blood draws and cultures etc etc. It was hard to comprehend al that was going on, this all happened so fast! He was soon admitted into a room and plenty of meds!
The next day we had talked with Drs. And they decided to go for the testing which included “Bone marrow scan and Biopsy” CT scan” MRI” another Lymph Node Biopsy in the neck, and a few more!
A week later (still in hospital) we found out the results and they were :
Neuro Blastoma Cancerours Tumors Stage 4 Cancer. And the reason It became stage 4 cancer is because he has a Massive Tumor growing in the skull ¼ of it growing on top all the way thru the BONE itself and ¾ of it at the bottom of the bone pushing On top of the brain (NOT A BRAIN TUMOR)!
He had massive cluster of cancerous tumors in his neck. And 90% of His Bone Marrow were covered in head to toe of small detectable tumors!
We quickly had started chemo therapy and the plan was 2 years of Chemo plus recovery chemo! This was the original plan! He would be getting chemo every 3 weeks (once a month basically) The first Night Of chemo (I stayed with Elijah in Hospital everyday) was the hardest for me, it was worse than the day we found out he had cancer.. As I watched them Hook him up to Chemo (the strongest kind of Chemo) I was hurting inside, and felt week and helpless, as a mom that’s the worst you can feel for your child! I cried so hard I can barley breath, this was truly the hardest night in my whole entire life knowing they had to inject POISON to kill this disease!
At the same time I felt the Spirit of God grow inside me, I instantly felt an overwhelming response of strength! I had chosen to NOT accept this! I will not accept sickness and disease in my Child. Jesus Christ had already been beaten and bruised and bled on the cross for our healing.!!! This was already done, I just knew I had to believe it and Accept the report of Jesus Christ and his Blood! So every Chemo Elijah had received from here on out (I laid hands on the bags of chemo and BLESSED each one)
We have had to have Thanksgiving in the cafeteria with family coming to visit! Not my ideal TG but you make due! Ronnie (my husband) had to take weeks off of works using up all his vacation time PPO and PTO and his sickdays (wait?) … ANYWAYS! Sleepness nights became a part of everyday living, and missing my older son CAYDEN who is 5 yrs old and has AUTISM! I have been an at home mom since I was pregnant, and this was also the hardest thing to do, is to have to sacrifice my time with my older son to be with Elijah! Ronnie had to become a Worker and a House Wife/Mom/ DAD in this process!
3 months into Chemo we noticed dramatic results of the Chemo, because of the Blessing of Christ he dramatically had his swollen lymph nodes decrease in size! Not only that, but he hadn’t gotten sick at all with this chemo he was receiving! (knocked on wood) – (the cross is the wood).
After knowing that his lymph nodes (tumors) in his neck had decreased the Drs wanted to find out if anything else was decreasing, so we went ahead and did more testing! The testing shown that the tumors were starting to decrease in size. Even the one in his skull. So we kept on path of chemo and changed his chemo meds on the 4th cycle (4th month) we were warned this chemo may make him sick, so we prepared as best as we could!
In the meantime things at home began to develop as far as community outreach was going! Elijahs story began to be told around the world for prayer! He story was on a tv evangelist prayer group, he was all over facebook (“Elijah Cancer support Group”), by word of mouth, friends in high placesd and friend in low places began to talk! Friend in other countries around the world started praying! Our count at 4 months after diagnosis was over 10,000 people praying for Elijah! CANCER NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO SURVIVE!! My little man became a celebrity per say. A benefit Dinner was held on Jan 15th 2011 for raising money for Elijah! After all that was said and done over 800 people had attended, had a few music groups and skits, and raised just about 18k! an overwhelming response! To this day we are still receiving money from people who are helping! Gods provision has not ended for us!
At the benefit dinner we had announced after all the testing that elijahs Tumors in his neck were 90% gone, and that Thursday before the dinner we had found out the Elijahs Bone marrow went from 90% covered to 0% covered! All the detectable tumors in Elijahs bone marrow had decreased to nothing!
The tumor in his skull had decreased 30% but is still resting on the brain with no puncture to the brain! YAY!!! God was doing amazing miracles in my son! People would look at Elijah and ask, if he is stage 4 why isn’t he sick? I would say, Let me tell you why!!?? Because it started with FAITH! Faith in Jesus. To even question God as to why, who, what, when where, and not even a possibility! See My beliefe is EVERY GOOD and perfect thing Comes from God, this is what the scripture says. I don’t Believe God gave us to this road to teach us a lesson or to tech us to learn how to have more Faith! But in this time of trouble and trials of sickness and diseases I have LEARNED to fall on Christ and trust him. We tend to limit God and what he can do. I know God can speak and it happens! So therefore I believe as I also see it happening!
Elijah, Last week 3/15/2011 had gone into surgery for a ENT surgeon to remove the tumors in Elijahs neck.. We had recieved EXRAYS on the tumors in his neck and we found out that the Tumors had grown around the corated artery leading to his brain, and 5 other nerves.. Of course this was upsetting because the risk the DR had to take to remove them was damagable to Elijah.. he could have Ruptured the nerves or corated artery cause stroke, brain damage or damage to any of these nerves!
Sooo... We prayed for Elijah to have a miracle!! When the Dr went into Elijahs Neck, The Dr was amazed at what he saw!! God had released the Tumors off the artery and nerves.. there is no damage to the nerves or artery!! and the dr put it in LAME MANS TERMS (It was a piece of Cake!!) he said!! well not really that easy but he cleared it all out!!!!!!
God had removed all the surrounding tumors off of everything! this was a true complete miracle straight from God himself! The drs were amazed!!!
After all the tests were done, we found out, that there was no evidence of Neuroblastoma anywhere in his body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE KNOW he is cancer free... Unfortunatly the Drs havnt claimed it yet, so therefore we must follow protocol (which would be wise to do so) and we are recieving (HIS OWN) Bone marrow stem cells infusion (aka transplant)!!!
He has been randomized to 2 transplants but after all is said and done, we wont have much to do afterwards!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!
