UPDATE – March 1, 2024 – My now 15-year old grandson Dylan has survived a fatal form of Leukemia (ALL) he got when he was an infant. After months and months of early hospitalization and intense treatments including chemo, radiation, and a rare cord blood transplant, he is now free from the Leukemia itself (a miracle in my book) and we are hopeful for an improving future although there are many challenges ahead for us.
His continued care for associated physical, mental, and social related issues has added a lot of expense for his parents (my son Erik & daughter-in-law Michelle). Since they have no insurance (it got used up a long time ago for Dylan) they have to pay “out-of-pocket” for all expenses including continued doctor visits for cancer checkups for his brain as well as other medical needs because of the damage the early treatment (radiation, chemo) did to the rest of his body.
We love Dylan very much and one of the big reasons I do this blog is to help my grandson through these small donations from generous people like you. Maybe you also have gone through severe medical issues in your life or know a family member who may now be dealing with health issues or has died from Leukemia? I think we all know people like that who have been through difficult times.
Dylan at 9 years old
Although Dylan may overall “look” fairly normal at this point, he is far from that. Dylan has physical & severe mental developmental issues, including very poor eyesight, due to the intense treatment (chemo & radiation) he received for the Leukemia when he was an infant through age 1, but it took a while to see if Dylan would develop normally or not. We have known for awhile that he does not operate and behave normally including not being able to communicate much past a 3-4 year old level and not able to say many words, as well as being visually impaired with poor vision due to glaucoma issues.
Dylan’s brain & thought functions are impaired. It is difficult for him to learn to discern right from wrong in different situations as he will behave in unpredictable ways sometimes which are far from normal and can be disturbing to his surroundings and other people who do not understand. It’s almost like he has autism in some ways because much of the time he lives in his own world. What Dylan has is now commonly referred to as “chemo brain” and it will continue to be a source of dysfunction throughout his life in a variety of ways, as I mentioned.
As Dylan continues to grow he also continues to show us that he is learning new things and developing in small but noticeable ways. However, at the same time he displays new health issues as he grows along with the ones he already has. He was having brain seizures a while ago but has been on meds to help with that, but the medications are expensive. Basically the neurons in his brain go haywire without warning and can have a seizure which is scary to go through for him and equally scary for his parents to watch him go through it.
His parents (Erik & Michelle) cannot really afford a lot of his care since they do not have insurance that will cover many of these things. But it is such a blessing for him and his family (parents, etc) to not go through these terrible seizures because of what this medicine is doing for him.
The bottom line is that Dylan needs and is undergoing long term professional developmental care and therapy which is necessary and continues to be costly and is beyond our family’s ability to pay for. Some days Dylan’s long term needs seem severe and other days not as bad, it goes back and forth. But regardless of that, we love him and need to help care for him with the hope he can improve somewhat over time (he already has little by little). Something I did not mention yet is that through a dental checkup a few years ago, we learned that Dylan has no teeth coming in at all since he began losing his baby which happened much later than a healthy child, and he is now 14 years old.
Thank you to all the people out there who have donated to help my grandson Dylan and his ongoing mental and physical needs. Dylan is now 14 years old (a teenager) as can be seen in this recent photo of him, but his ongoing physical, mental, and social needs are still there. He has come a long way but is still challenged in so many ways and will likely need ongoing care and supervision for the remainder of his life, unless an unexpected miracle occurs. But…he is “generally” a happy child and is growing in his ability to understand his surroundings.
With regard to his physical needs, Dylan has no teeth (as I already mentioned) because of all the chemo and radiation treatment he previously received when he was a baby. Those treatments killed off many of his healthy brain cells/neurons during his early childhood physical development.
Dylan will not be able to have anything done about his teeth issues until he is older past teenage years when possible orthodontia work can actually be done, which will be expensive. He’ll have no teeth to chew for now with which is hard to believe, but true. He just does the best that he can but he eats a lot of food these days, just like growing boys normally do..
But…the issues this growing boy has to deal with are still huge…but yet he smiles and laughs (some of the time) and can be a fun kid and shows love to people (when he is in the mood:). You never know when that will be because he is generally unpredictable when it comes to that kind of response and behavior. That can be frustrating for his Mom & Dad as every parent wants their child to love them and be “normal.”.
I am asking anyone who appreciates my blog reviews (which I do at my own expense and time) if you would consider donating a small amount towards Dylan’s expenses? It would mean so much to me and my family, and we are hopeful that one day we will see some much needed physical, mental, & interactive social improvements, although it is still very challenging right now as I have talked about. We have seen some small improvements over the years with the therapy he has received that we are able to afford along with his special needs school that he is in.
But Dylan still has a very long way to go physically, mentally and socially assuming his Leukemia never comes back which are hopeful that it won’t and it has not so far. We are praying that a miracle will occur and that we will see some dramatic improvements with Dylan over time because he is loved by many.
All proceeds will go directly to Dylan’s continued care.
No donation is too small
Also, take a look at this video below to get a good idea of what Dylan’s parents (Erik & Michelle Praskins) went through when Dylan was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was a baby. Oh, and we were at their side for most of it.
