Make A Child Smile

Tyler's Story
written by grandma Betty

Tyler was born on May 12th, 1993 in Waconia, MN. At the age of 6 months, custody of him and his then 3 year old sister was transferred to his grandparents. He has lived with us since then.

Tyler has been a very active boy, participating in wrestling for 6 years and football for 3 years. In August, 2007, he was at a wrestling camp where he got thrown on the mat during practice and his ribs became very sore (so he thought). Around that time, he got a bulge on his left side, which he still thought was from wrestling. He went to a chiropractor for about 2 months. It did not get any better and became very painful. He had his ribs x-rayed in September and we were told nothing showed up.

After it did not get any better we took him back to the doctor in November and he had an MRI done. That is when they detected he had bone cancer, Osteosarcoma. He has a tumor on his back. On November 20, 2007 he was admitted to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, MN. He underwent CAT Scans, Bone Scans, Pet Scans, a Biopsy and had a double port implanted. Tyler has to be hospitalized to have chemo treatments. He started chemo on November 26, 2007 and was in the hospital for 10 days. He then returned on December 17 for the second round of chemo and was in the hospital for 8 days. He was supposed to get chemo for 3 consecutive weeks, and then have 2 weeks off and then 3 weeks of chemo again and so on.

Tyler has been getting very sick from the chemo and has had to spend much more time in the hospital. He has been very tired, has very little energy, gets sick and throws up a lot. He went into the hospital on February 4, 2008 for another round of chemo. That one really made him sick. He got very bad mouth sores and started running high fevers. He was not able to eat anything and had to be put on liquid foods through his IV’s. He has been in the hospital since then. His lung collapsed from the tumor pressing against it and fluid built up around it.

On February 17, 2008 he had surgery to remove the fluid that was building up around his lung. They were only able to remove about 1/3 of the fluid at that time because the surgeon did not want to have to move his lung around. He has been running fevers since then and the doctors think it is because of the fluid around his lung.

On February 26, 2008 he had surgery to remove the tumor. He had a tumor the size of a small football removed which weighed 2 pounds! He also had three ribs removed and a mesh put in to act as ribs. However after reviewing the tumor under the microscope, the doctors have determined that they did not get all of the cancer cells out. He will have to have more intense chemo and radiation. They are hoping to let him get some of his strength built up and maybe go home for a week or so before they start the next round of chemo. At this time we are still waiting for the rest of the pathology results to come back so they can determine where to go from here. It is possible, if they decide to do local radiation, that he may have to go to another State to get it done, as they do not do it anywhere in Minnesota.

Through it all, Tyler has been in good spirits. At this time we are just praying that he can recover enough from the surgery to be able to come home, even if it is only for a short time.