Knox Knocks Cancer

Knox Update - Week 3 As we get to the end of week 3, I wanted to pass along an update from Philly. At the end of last week, Knox was in the hospital with high fevers. The fevers finally subsided and went away completely, allowing us to leave on Tuesday after a 6 night stay. We are thankful for our warm and comfortable townhouse and, while we are very thankful for the care he received, we are glad to be out of the hospital. He has continued to progress back to full strength. To this point, all tests have come back negative for disease. We pray for this continually and thank you all for calling out to the LORD on his behalf. We continue to pray for these Tcells to last for a long time, reaching and destroying every last blast cell that may be left. From here on out, the clinic visits are not as many and often, but he'll still get bloodwork checked once or twice a week. We are schedule to be here until March 16th and he'll have another bone marrow aspiration and lumbar pu...

Knox Update - End of Week 2 and it’s been a long eventful week. Knox had his bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture on Monday, requiring him to be put to sleep. Tuesday was Tcell day and he received his Tcell infusion. After infusion, there’s a window of time (10 days or so) where reactions can happen. By Wednesday evening, Knox had developed a fever that progressed quickly. There are limits that when the fever gets high enough, he has to go to the hospital. So we arrived at the Emergency Department around 9:30pm. We checked into an inpatient room at about 1:15am. The first time Knox had this done last summer, he developed a fever about 5 days after, stayed in the hospital 3 nights, then had been long enough without a fever that he could go home (back to where we’re staying). This time, his fever came quickly and has been stronger and more persistent. The fever actually went away Thursday night and was gone all day Friday, but Friday night it came back strong and continue...

Friends - many have seen our "KNOX" gear recently and asked about getting it...We're happy to report that Play It Again Sports - Lynchburg, VA has put together a store online that you can purchase from...this is not a fundraiser for us, but a pretty cool way to simply show support and have others see it too!...our goal is threefold: 1) Give others the chance to wear stuff they've seen and asked for...2) Even though it's not a fundraiser, we're asking you to buy and wear, hoping that many will ask about what "Knox" means or who he is, and that his journey and his story will continue to go out, giving all of us a chance to proclaim God's glory through it and encourage others to get on board praying for him...3) Support Play It Again Sports - Lynchburg, VA as Jeff has been gracious to get this together and make it possible...note that the store is open until 2/21, then the order will be processed and ready for pick up...HOWEVER, there is a shippin...

Knox Update - End of week 1 here in Philly...Clinically, everything went according to plan...a drive through the snow storm on Monday...6 chemo infusions over the next 4 days...a weekend of nausea (that's gotten better throughout today in time for Super Bowl pizza)...tomorrow we start another long week with Knox being sedated in the morning for a lumbar puncture and bone marrow aspiration...this will tell us where his disease is as a starting point before his T cell infusion on Tuesday...to this point, since last summer, Knox's bone marrow has been below the detectable limits and we pray that it still is...as mentioned, he gets his T cells on Tuesday...we go back Wednesday for some follow up blood work, then again on Friday...the week or so following the T cell infusion is the prime time for any reactions he may have, if any...the first time he got T cells last summer, he did develop a fever and was admitted as inpatient for a few days, so we'll see...again, clinically, eve...

While we celebrate The Lord’s Day, a snow day, and Ellie’s Birthday, we also get ready for the next step in Knox’s journey. Tomorrow, Knox and Buck leave for Philadelphia again for six weeks. Since Knox’s T cells didn’t last long enough last fall, a new T cell collection was done in November. We knew this day would come (actually later than expected) for us to return, but Thanksgiving, Christmas, a couple of birthdays to celebrate, and other normal life stuff has taken over our day to day activity. Now that the time to leave is here, we start to feel the emotions that come with the reality before us. Just as last summer, we will be gone for six weeks, there will be a week of chemo this week, his T cell infusion on Tuesday the 9th, and then time to have many tests and follow-ups to see if the T cells are active. Please pray for our travels, for peace that can only come from knowing Jesus, and for the T cells to work for a long, long time. We’ll update throughout, but keep praying...

Knox Update - First of all, thank you for continuing to pray for Knox and all of us...this journey continues to have unexpected layers...Knox's second dose of T cells have given out and he again has early B cell return...again, we are thankful that there currently aren't any signs of relapse, but with nothing going on in his body to run surveillance, there's that concern...while in theory, the short lived T cells could have had an effect on any remaining, undetectable leukemia, clinically it's considered unlikely and thus further therapy is needed...so, after discussions on what to do, we have decided to re-do the CAR T therapy, but with a newer version...so, Jessi and Knox will head to Philadelphia tomorrow morning and will be there for a few days...Knox will have T cells collected on Wednesday, then they will come back home...from there we will wait for the T cells to be engineered and then we'll go back up (guessing January sometime) and will be there again for 6...

Quick Knox Update - Knox and Jessi have gotten back from Philadelphia...Knox has received a new dose of T cells and we are back to praying that they will last for a long, long time...they are currently in transit to UVA for bloodwork and he will go back to UVA in 2 weeks for more follow up...Knox is doing well and back to "normal" life...so, we pray that these T cells will grow and circulate for many months...he is already scheduled to go back to Philadelphia sometime in January for another dose of the T cells...we are praying that his current T cells will not give out before then...while we pray for his healing, that these T cells will be present and active for a long time, and that the Lord will use the success of this treatment in kids like Knox as another means to promote His glory, we are also thankful that he is able to receive these treatments and be doing well at this point...remember our entire family as this has been a complete effort and all of these sort of days h...