Knox Knocks Cancer

Follow Up...Knox had a full day...chemo this morning, general anesthesia with port placement surgery later, and the LP injection...he’s definitely feeling rough, but thankful it all went smoothly Thank you for continuing to lift him up...

Quick Knox Update - thank you for joining with us in Knox’s fight.  Knox’s treatments have been going according to plan and without any problems, however, it’s not without struggle.  Knox is facing each day and we’re thankful for God’s blessing him to do it.  Tomorrow he will go back to UVA for more chemo and for surgery to put a port back in his chest in order to give the nurses access and to keep him from having to get have his arm poked each time.  Please pray that his anesthesia, procedure, and healing will go well and without complication.

Knox Update - 5/25 Last week was long and trying emotionally and physically. We are thankful that everything went according to plan and without complication. We got home Friday afternoon and have enjoyed the weekend with everyone at home. Knox started his chemo on Friday which includes a week of steroids at at time. While 7 days is a blip in the span of time, and while steroids are extremely effective, they have an immediate effect on his mood, taste, look, etc. Things he would  eat last week "taste like puke" to him now. It's hard to relay the details, but safe to say he's feeling the effects of treatments already. We are looking at a few months or so of chemo while we wait for his T cells to be prepared and we get called back to CHOP for their infusion. Please pray for the doctors making decisions on treating him as they assess his blood counts and his response to treatment in order to determine the next course of treatment. We are thankful for them and their sin...

Knox Update - after a long day in clinic in Philly, Knox is set to have his T cells collected tomorrow. Another long day ahead followed by a long drive back in the evening since he needs to be in clinic at UVA Friday morning. The staff at CHOP was very kind and we felt very comfortable there. Please pray that the mechanics of tomorrow would go smoothly. Please pray that he will handle sedation in the morning without complication. Please pray for a safe trip home in the evening. Please pray that it would please the Lord to heal him through this process and treatment. He is with us, comforting us, and granting us peace. There are many moments of sadness and weakness, but I know that's where God is strong. I pray that we will be faithful to proclaim Him.

Knox Update - First, I do apologize for the length of time between updates. We appreciate everyone's prayers for Knox and for our family. Let me ask that you earnestly pray and seek the Lord and this may be a way for God to bring you closer to Him. When I last updated, I was gathering information from many places on what Knox's next steps could possibly look like. We are so thankful for Knox's doctors and nurses at UVA and their love for us. They have been super caring, attending, and helpful. Without great detail, we have looked into and opted for an immunotherapy treatment at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Part of Knox's care will be there and part will continue to be at UVA (again, they have been super helpful in figuring all of this out and will still be greatly involved in his treatments). The treatment is called CAR-T therapy that uses his own cells. These cells are collected from his blood, re-engineered in a lab to recognize the leukemia in his bo...

Knox Update - 5/3 Thank you for your prayers...we've had an event free weekend, have watched Knox play and interact just like always (aside from some back pain from the procedure yesterday), and grown a bit in seeing God's character through the preaching of His word... Friday, Knox had bone marrow drawn to determine the level of Leukemia present there. Praise be to God that none was detected. The way I understand it is that there may be some residual amounts (thus still the  need for whole body therapy to come soon), but it can't get any better than not being able to detect any!! So as it stands, he does have blast cells present in his CSF, but not in his marrow. Tomorrow we go to UVA for another lumbar puncture (have to keep treating his CSF, but this helps him feel better too) and to discuss the next steps with the team there. We are so thankful for his team, various contacts we've had over the last few days, and for the way this is starting to take shape. That bei...

Quick update - Knox, Jessi, and I arrived at UVA at 8:30am...he was sick once on the way up and once after we got here, but seems to be feeling better now...he has had his LP and bone marrow procedures and is slowly waking up...hopefully the med that was administered will help his head feel better for a while...plan is to be home sometime this afternoon... We don’t know the next move or steps, exactly, but his team is working to help us with that... Please pray that we get clarity on what’s next and have the reassurance to make that decision...pray he will not have any emergency situations over the weekend so we can enjoy our time at home...pray that it would be God’s will for him to be free of Leukemia for good...

On Friday, Knox started experiencing headaches that were unexplained. Saturday they continued and he started vomiting along with them. Saturday night we spent overnight and into Sunday morning in the ER at UVA getting him tested for various things. The tests came back negative, he seemed to feel better, and we came home. Monday, he did throw up one more time, but then seemed to feel better. After speaking with his doctor, we scheduled a lumbar puncture procedure today to  collect a sample of his CSF to see if any Leukemia happened to be present in the fluid around his brain and spinal cord. We were praying and hoping that this would be a formality to simply chalk up his headaches to a viral illness and that he was on the mend. On the way home from UVA today, we received a call with results and found out that Knox's Leukemia has relapsed. This is tough for us and frankly, we are scared. We have been and are praying. Knox is probably handling it better than the rest of us. We are hea...

While many will follow Facebook posts, I know many would like to know what's going on without searching it out on FB...I'll post those updates here as well