Corey the Brave

Hello all, just wanted to give you all a quick update on our travels to New York and the first few days in the Big Apple. First off Corey travelled like a rock a star! The long trip was pretty draining on us, but we made it in one piece. We were incredibly lucky to have Mark, a cousin of Hayden’s fly over from London, to meet us and show us around. We would’ve been completely lost if we had to manage this move on our own! Needless to say, both Hayden and I are extremely out of our elements and were so grateful for the help!

I had a laundry list of things I needed to get done straight away to get Corey the medical coverage that he needs to be treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Everything seemed to fall into place and I am happy to report that Corey’s Medicaid coverage has been APPROVED. This is such an incredible relief for us, if it was not approved we’d be flying back to New Zealand without much hope to hold onto. There is still quite a lot to learn and navigate through in terms of the healthcare system and what we will be responsible for, but we at least have a starting point, the rest we can figure out as we go.

This past Friday Corey had his first appointment with his new doctor. She was lovely, and Corey seemed quite comfortable with her straight away. Next week will be incredibly busy, several tests and procedures are needed to determine the next step in his treatment. Next week Corey will be having Blood tests, MRIs, CT, Bone Marrow Aspiration, Lumbar Puncture, MIBG Scan and an Echocardiogram. These tests will take most of the week and possibly the next week before a new treatment plan can be made for him. We’re hoping that multiple procedures can be grouped together to minimize the number of times Corey has to go under general anaesthetic. (All of these tests were done not even a month ago but the move to a new hospital requires new scans and we understand it is part of the process.)

As for the weekend we have been trying to make the most of our time together in New York as a family. It has been several weeks from Corey’s last treatment which means he is running at full speed. We have been all over the city and are amazed at the actual size of it all. I mean we knew it was big, but we had NO idea just how big. While we are trying to make the most of our time here we will be counting the days before we get to head back home to New Zealand.

There has also been so much happening in NZ and here in the states for Corey. Hayden and I are so enormously grateful for the support that we are receiving. Corey truly has an army marching behind him and we are blown away by it all. Please know that we are so humbled by the generosity we have received from so many of you!