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Graydon Fights Cancer

  • Another update

      11 December 2014

    Graydon's mum here! Things haven't gone smoothly, lots of delays. But we're two weeks into the last phase before maintanence, which will finish some time in January if all goes to plan. This phase isn't as easy as we expected, poor baby has been throwing up a lot more than the last 'nastier' lot, but at least the chemo is only two days in every 10 day chunks. We are also struggling with the nasal gastric tube, Graydon has become allergic to just about every tape now. Since he was in hospital with a staph infection for two weeks because an allergic reaction got infected, we have been constantly getting the tape and tube moved about... Needless to say he hates both with a passion. Unfortunately, we tried tube free and he ended up losing nearly a kilo in four days, so tube free won't work!

    Despite all of this, my darling boy and his amazing big sister are taking all of this with incredible fortitude! Graydon is the doll of all the nurses because of his constant smiles and loving cuddles, forgetting and forgiving pokes prods and taping!

    Both of the kids birthdays are coming up in January, he turns 3 and she turns 11, and with Xmas coming just before we are doing our best to plan financially. We are putting your donations to good use, thank you everyone!

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  • Update for 02/12/2014

      2 December 2014

    Graydon's dad here again! We're finally into Graydon's interim maintenance II phase, which is the last step before we settle into maintenance mode. All the really intensive chemo is behind us! We'll still be going in for chemo at least once a month for the next 3 years, but we're really looking forward to a boring routine starting early next year. We're too broke to do much for Christmas, but we're so thankful that your donations have got us through this really trying first year! And as always we're so thankful for the financial and emotional support the Child Cancer Foundation provides to us and families like us - including the upcoming Christmas party where Santa will give out a few gifts. Thanks once again, and I'll drop another note come the new year.

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  • Update for 31/10/2014

      31 October 2014

    Hi all, Graydon's father here! Since it's been a while since we've had time to write an update, I thought I'd better pop in and let everyone know how things are going. Graydon is now nearing the end of his delayed intensification phase - this means we're pretty much over the worst of the chemotherapy. It also means no more (planned) nights in hospital. He's responding well to treatment and is back up to a normal weight for his age and height. About a month ago Graydon got a staph infection on his face (probably just scratched the skin with a dirty fingernail) and woke up in the middle of the night with a temperature of 40C (that's 104F) and ended up spending two weeks in hospital on IV antibiotics before we got it under control. His face is finally clearing up nicely, but this really highlighted the extra danger he faces for the next couple of years with a non-existent immune system. We've spent the thousand dollars given to date. Roughly a third went to clothes, a third to educational toys, and the rest has either paid for the petrol to cover extra hospital trips or helped feed me while in hospital (I'm always the one that stays with him overnight.) We haven't had a clothes budget since Graydon was diagnosed, and both children are growing fast. So we budgeted a trip to K-Mart and topped up the children's wardrobe with some outfits that actually fit them. We can't use the toy library, and playgroup is pretty much out of the question, so we've had to get a few things like a sand/water table, wooden building blocks, and other age-appropriate learning materials for Graydon (and big thanks to the play specialists at the hospital for helping us choose well). He already recognises most of his numbers and a few letters, so I think he'll be reading in no time! We can't begin to thank everyone who has materialized to help us through this period. A really special heartfelt thanks though to the Child Cancer Foundation, who provide so much financial and emotional support to all the New Zealand families in our situation.

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  • Update and thank you to Forge of Honor

      9 July 2014

    First off, a huge and heartfelt thank you to Forge of Honor for their amazing support on blog and facebook... I've posted a link at the end. We backed their KickStarter for these amazing sets, where you get a dragon, shield and sword set, all stuffed but of really amazing quality, before we even knew Graydon was sick. He got it about two weeks ago just before having to go back to ChCh for the start of maintanence and he hasn't slept without that dragon since! He constantly has mock battles with his sister and her wood sword during the day too :D As for update, Graydon is in week 3 of start of maintanence and is doing really well. Unfortunately he managed to catch a cold, so we had a tense night of fevers and coughing before we got the results of the nasal swab telling us it was JUST a cold. He's on 48 hours antibiotics as a preventative... its heart breaking that something so simple can lead to so much worse if we're not careful! His lumbar puncture results from week one have confirmed his white blood cell count is doing well, no indications of a relapse, so we're feeling pretty confident. We still have 2.5 more years of chemo to make sure he stays that way! But things are going to start getting easier soon.... in a few months we'll only have to go into hospital for treatments once a month, while we administer chemo at home as needed - a huge relief after spending nearly every day going into Wellington for treatments and bloods for the past few months (when we aren't in ChCh!). Again, thank you so much for all the support - some of you are complete strangers and you humble us with your generosity. You give us hope and make us feel a part of an unexpectedly huge community! Here's the Forge of Honor link: http://www.forgeofhonor.com/2014/07/08/a-young-hero-and-his-fight-against-leukemia/

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  • Update for 12/06/2014

      12 June 2014

    We are so overwhelmed by everyone's generosity! Thank you so very much!! We've been given the all clear to start interim maintenance on the 23rd, fingers crossed nothing changes! This is the last really tough chemo set, which involves him going to ChristChurch for four days every fortnight for four or five cycles. Our little boy is bald but happy, although he's still on the nasal-gastric tube because he refuses to eat much of anything. Here's hoping that will improve after this next set, too.

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  • Time to up the chemo

      18 April 2014

    Enter details of your update here So we're in week 2 of the consolodation (I think? losing track!), but Graydon has been on a lower dose than needed because of liver function issues.... all is clear for him to go back to ChristChurch to intensify the treatment to full dose chemo. Hopefully he's only away from home (Wellington) for a week, but could be more. So once again, daddy goes so mum can take care of the house and 10 year old - plus daddy so much better at dealing with hospital crap. Each to their strengths! Going to be hard to seperate the family again, but little girl not covered for flights with us.

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