In the summer of 2008, Jackson was a year and a half old...he had been having some cranky episodes which I chalked up to getting older/teething. In September, he quit eating as well, sleeping through the night, and cried a lot. His doctor visits started there. First, they thought he was teething, which is what I thought was going on. Next, they thought he had a sinus infection, but being on antibiotics wasn't helping the poor little guy. Jack was getting increasingly more and more uncomfortable, and no answer was being found.

I had been planning on moving to Mitchell, and when we got there took him to Peds Plus. He had a physical examination, and we then went over to the hospital to have blood drawn. Our doctor called and said that she wanted some scans of Jackson the next day, which then turned into us going to Avera in Sioux Falls so that we could get the results back right away. Since he'd been not feeling well for so long, she just wanted us to know what was going on with him. It took less than 24 hours for us to find out that Jack had tumors throughout his whole body. He had three in his head, two on his thigh bone, lesions along his spine, and in his abdomen. Pretty much the nightmare that any parents fears. We were then told we'd be going to Sanford; Avera, at the time, did not have a pediatric oncologist. So, we headed over there for the start of our "new normal". We had more tests done at Sanford and they diagnosed him with Neuroblastoma cancer. A cancer I had heard about from a best friend from high school, who's daughter had it. When they diagnosed him, we also found out that he not only had all the tumors through his body, but that his bone marrow was 80% tumor.

After that, we talked about our plan of action. First was surgery on his head, where they did a biopsy of a tumor. Next, we took Jackson to the U of M for stem cell harvest. They ended up getting all the cells they needed with the one harvest. We then came back to Sanford and they started the first of six rounds of chemo. He did fairly well through the six rounds, and it was great to have one step completed. Jackson then had a tumor resection in his abdomen and did great with that surgery. We then went to the U of M for his bone marrow transplant. The first week he had three days of high dose chemo, a day of rest, and then the transplant.

Six days after his transplant, the scariest day throughout everything happened, Jackson had two cardiac arrests. At that time, they talked about surgery, which only at best he had a 60% chance of getting through it. My family and I went in to see him before the surgery, he was intubated, and had IV lines everywhere they could access. They were attempting to put in a catheter and his bladder emptied a massive amount...his belly went down, and they decided to not take him to surgery. He was then moved to the NICU. We were there for almost 2 weeks, then we were moved back to the BMT floor after he was extubated. Jackson ended up being in the hospital for 59 days, and had to re-learn how to walk, eat, and play.

We were discharged to the Ronald McDonald House and Jackson loved being over there. Jackson then started radiation, which he did wonderfully with. He was sedated everyday, and had radiation for only a couple of minutes. We finished radiation a little early so that Jackson could get onto a new antibody study, which had six cycles. The first two cycles he completed at the U of M, and the rest he got to finish at Sanford. After the last cycle, Jackson had scans and all of them came back clear, his bone marrow is also clear. Jackson's treatment took eighteen months, and he's now getting back to a normal life. He runs around and is full of so much energy...it's amazing and wonderful to see him play and laugh and not be in a hospital bed. We're looking forward to swimming this summer after his line is removed, and playing on his rainbow play system. Jackson is a fighter, and a wonderful listener...I told him when he was diagnosed that he had no choice but to get better, and a good boy always listens to his mom! Thank goodness I have a good boy.

Christine Perkins

I had just turned 40 and it was time for my very first (and last) mammogram. I was sitting in my doctor’s office and the subject came up so I agreed and wondered when I would have time. This was January, so I was thinking sometime in June or July would be ok. My doctor had a different idea. She would not let me leave the office without an appointment, so out comes my daily planner (my bible on somedays). I scribbled in a lunch time appointment for the following week not giving it any thought. The procedure comes and goes and I am thinking I will just get that card in the mail telling me that everything is normal and we will see you in a year. I got a phone call the very next morning at 8:10AM asking me to come into the doctor’s office AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, she needs to talk to me, they found "something abnormal".

After the biopsy, the "something abnormal" was insintu ductal carsinoma and it was everywhere. After meeting with the surgeon, a mastectomy is recommended, as there is nothing else she can do. My saving grace, it had not yet entered my lymph nodes so no chemo but lots and lots of surgeries. In the end I opted for a double mastectomy with reconstruction and a full hysterectomy and, of course, the daily medication for the next 5 years.

Lyle Weber