June of 2022 was the surgery that started this whole crazy cancer battle for my son.  My 15-year-old son Brenden had a mass on his left arm that was concerning, and the dermatologist decided to remove it and send it to the pathologist. We then got a call asking if it can be sent out to the University of Michigan pathology department because they needed a second opinion. So, we waited, and about a week later received a call from a nurse that sounded confused and lacking confidence about the diagnosis. The official/unofficial diagnosis was “Primary Cutaneous Marginal Zone Lymphoproliferative Disorder”.  Now here is where it gets interesting! So apparently my son is the 2% of the population that has this diagnosis as a child (it usually affects 50–60-year-olds).  Well, that was some interesting news. So, what does that mean for his future??  

That brings us to October of 2022 (that is the only time we could get him into a specialist at U of M) we meet with the intern that works for the specialist and they do another biopsy on a second mass that my son found. The doctor finally came in and says “that the treatment moving forward would be removal and spot radiation if any more spots pop up. But not to worry because it is nonaggressive.” At this point the term cancer was being used very lightly. Well doctor bills are coming in hot and heavy, and the stress is mounting because we have a high deductible insurance policy, on top of my husband taking days off work.  So, we continue on with our daily lives. A couple days later I get a call from U of M and I am told to find a pediatric oncologist for Brenden. This is news that kind of caught us off guard because of what the specialist told us about the treatment plan.  I find a pediatric oncologist at the DMC Childrens Hospital in Troy, MI and get Brenden an appointment for November 1st. This brings us to the appointment that completely changed our lives. 

On November 1st we met with Dr. Chu and had the most, life changing, emotional, heartbreaking, and eye-opening appointment, that as parents, just took us down! Our son has a form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma! It also considered a form of B-cell lymphoma, but he has T-cells so it's kind of confusing. Either way, our 15-year-old son has CANCER! So, the doctor proceeds to hand us the BIG BOOK of What to do when your child has cancer. Holy crap, this is real!!  Now we are scheduling PET scans, CT scans, talking about bone marrow biopsies, and they are taking a crazy amount of blood from my baby boy. We are also talking about sperm banks, because the Chemotherapy could kill his sperm cells! Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe this was happening!!  In the weeks to come it will be trips to the Detroit and Troy locations, tests, tests and more tests, ultrasounds and talks of more surgeries to make sure the cancer cells were removed with the original biopsy that they did at the U of M hospital. The month of November was crazy! The emotions that we were feeling as parents were all over the place. My son, he handled everything like a freaking champ!! Kept good grades in school (All A's & B's) he was in 10th grade at the time, and he was rocking it! He is truly amazing! Actually, both my kids are! We also have a 17-year-old daughter (that is a Senior this coming school year).

After the crazy month of November, but before we scheduled the bone marrow biopsy and the plan for Chemotherapy, the doctor had a consultation with other doctors from St. Jude's and the Karmanos Cancer Center. (Now remember that I had said that this type of cancer only affects 50- 60-year-olds and its odd for a child to have it.) So, Dr. Chu, Brenden's doctor, has never seen this type of cancer in a child. After the consultation, Dr. Chu decided to put all of the treatment plans and testing on hold. That was a sigh of relief for us before the Holiday season. But he wanted to see Brenden every 3 months for a skin check.

That brings us to January, and everything looked good, no new masses yet. April comes and he goes back in for the routine check, blood draw and exam. Finds a new mass, here we go again. The doctor told him to just watch it and see if it gets bigger. During this time Brenden has to go to another dermatologist to clear up his acne so the oncologist can see all of his clear skin to make sure he can identify any masses on his back. (he's a 16-year-old boy with acne) so he gets put on Accutane (sp?). Now we are in May, and he goes back in for the routine check, blood draw and exam. And another mass is found! Crap! Surgery is scheduled.  June 22, 2023, he has 3 masses removed. They get sent out to pathology, and 2 of them come back with cancer cells. OK, so now we are talking a treatment plan because the cancer is appearing faster than expected. This type of cancer is traveling through his lymphatic system and is attacking his skin. So, we go in for a couple more appointments and now we have a treatment plan. Brenden will have a 4-week Rituximab infusion that will hopefully put his cancer in remission.

July 18th, we go to Troy Childrens hospital for his 1st infusion. A couple of hours into it and he totally broke out in horrible hives. This is not good. We need this to work, this is the only option for him. We don't want to have to have him go through Chemo. They had to stop the infusion and treat with lots of steroids and antihistamines. 

July 25th, they decided to pretreat him with steroids, Benadryl, Tylenol, and Zofran. They also stretched his infusion from 4 hours to 6 hours. Holy crap it worked, and he was just fine. Thank God!  Now he has 3 more infusions, over the next 3 weeks. Fingers crossed that this works. 

Thank you for reading Brenden's story! He is just a 16-year-old that likes to play video games, just got his driver's license, his first car, and trying to work a part time job in between treatments. We are not a family to ask for help, however we are drowning in medical bills and my husband has taken off so much time from work. I don't work because I have Multiple Sclerosis (that's a whole nother story for a different day) Brenden will probably be fighting this battle for the rest of his life. It's a long road ahead! We are just looking for a little financial relief. Thank you, Christina!!!