It is always emotional and hard to introduce these brave Cancer Cuties. This month is especially difficult for us. This handsome strong boy Landon is the son of our dear friend Chaney. He was diagnosed with Leukemia Last month. We are all still in shock that cancer has affected another child so close to us. Landon you are so strong and brave. You show this cancer who is BOSS!
We will continue to bring awareness and support for all these families. Please donate to Landon and show his family lots of love.
Packer family, we love you with all our Hearts!
You can donate to Landon at www.psiadoreyou.com
Here is Landon's story written by his Parents: Michael and Chaney
In the late fall of 2014 Landon was playing in a Tennis tournament in Salt Lake City. During the match we noticed that he was having a hard time running. After the match we asked him what was wrong and he said that his wrists and knees hurt. We didn’t think much of it and figured it was because he was playing a lot of tennis. Over the next few weeks however his pain worsened. He would wake up at night with severe pain in his wrists. It was so bad that he would come into our room in tears. He was always so tired. This is when we decided to take him to the doctor.
His pediatrician recommended that Landon give a blood sample to see if that would answer some questions. His labs showed all his counts to be normal. The only abnormality was the inflammation in his blood was high. He told us Landon most likely had Arthritis and we were told to take him to Primary Children’s to see the Rheumatologists. They confirmed the diagnosis of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis in November 2014. He received injections in his wrists to help with the inflammation. Shortly after his knee started hurting again. They put him on steroids to help with the pain and inflammation. Over the weeks as we lowered the dose of steroids his pain returned. Except it was much worse.
After taking him to the doctor off and on for 3 months, his rheumatologist knew something was wrong. His pain was not acting like arthritis anymore. Landon started having other symptoms. His eye was swollen, he couldn’t lift his arm, he could barely walk on his right knee. This was concerning to the doctors, so they ordered an MRI in February.
He was diagnosed with A vascular Necroses or AVN. This explained the pain but the doctors were confused at why he had it. They didn’t feel that he had been on steroids long enough to cause AVN. His blood counts continued to test normal so we knew it couldn’t be cancer. As a precaution they admitted him to Primary Children’s to do a PET scan and a bone marrow biopsy where they confirmed that he has Pre-B-ALL (Leukemia). We were all devastated. Landon thought he would only have to stay in the hospital for 2 days for tests but they moved him to the cancer floor where we stayed for 10 more days.
Being a 9-year-old boy he was very aware of what was going on and we have realized just how smart he is and picked up on everything that the doctors said. He is having such a hard time not going to school or playing tennis. Now that he is home he is in better spirits and the chemo treatments are already helping the pain to go away. He loves being home with his 6-year-old brother and twin 3 year old sisters. He is the best, most loving big brother ever! This is so new to us. We are scared at what we face over the next 3 or 4 years. We love this little boy. As scary as this is, we are grateful to finally know what was causing him so much pain these past months.
