Seth at 8 months                                              Seth at 2 years

Here is a poem written by Keely.  It details the trials we went through as parents of an ill child.

3/13/00 update:  Another bone marrow biopsy was done on March 7th to verify him being in remission.  The results came back confirming the good news.  We will most likely have tests every 3 months to ensure the cancer doesn't reappear, but to us, the miracle is here to stay.  Please keep Seth in your prayers.  Thank you.

   On Friday, January 14th we received the most wonderful and unexpected news.  Seth's bone marrow is free of cancer!!!  He is now in remission.
    Up until the biopsy on Monday the 10th, Seth always had a small amount of cancer cells remaining in his bone marrow.  After a year and a half of chemotherapy, radiation, bone marrow transplant and retenoic acid treatment; Seth was still fighting away.  We were scheduled to start another round of low grade chemotherapy this month.  On Thursday we received the chemo to start administering at home.  We were depressed at the thought of putting Seth through the process all over again.  His immune system would be compromised in the middle of the flu season, his hair would again fall out and our lively little two year old would again become lethargic.
    Then by the healing hand of God, our son has been healed.  There is no explanation but a miracle.  The thousands of prayers being offered up for him provided the biggest miracle yet. (if you haven't read about his other miracles, click here)  Keely has kept a pin of St. Jude on him at all times and he has people praying for him from Seattle to Pennsylvania.  It is said that God listens especially to the prayers of little children, so thank you for all who have prayed with their children.  Big sister Samantha has been especially good about praying for Seth's cancer to go away.
    More reason for thanksgiving is his eyesight.  He isn't totally healed yet, but he continues to use his left eye more every day.  He can find his way around our living room cluttered with toys (they are mostly his.)  We are working with him to determine if he can see colors.

    Thank you again for all your prayers and support.  Our children are great gifts from God and now Seth is a gift twice received.
 

    At 8 months old, just over a year ago, Seth was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.  A large tumor was discovered in his abdomen and subsequent tumors were found in his sphenoid, tibia and pelvis.  The tumor in his abdomen was successfully removed through operation.  The tumor in his sphenoid (the bone behind the eyes) pinched off both optic nerves and caused Seth to go blind.
    Seth has currently gone through 8 sessions of Chemotherapy and 2 session of Radiation.  We also have been out to Seattle and completed the bone marrow purge and then the Stem Cell transplant.  He is currently off all of his numerous medications but still remains on the Retin A treatment.  This is a new treatment found to transform small amounts of cancer cells into healthy cells.
    He just went through a series of scans and tests in early July.  The bone scan and CT scan showed no new tumors, but the bone marrow biopsy showed a small amount of cancer cells remaining.  The doctors said this was neither good nor bad news.  So now we wait another 3 months for more tests.

***7/30/99***
    Seth finally got his Hickman catheter (I.V. tubes going into his chest) removed.  He had it since mid July a year ago.  It is a big relief for all of us.  Seth can now play in the water with out worry of infection.  Mom and dad don't have to spend 2 hours doing a bath and dressing change.  He is also much more comfortable without the tubes and clamps.

***9/10/99***
    Click here for the latest letter we sent out.  We hope we got everyone and apologize if we missed you.  We tried to keep a good record of everyone, but if we missed you, here it is and thank you.
Seth update 9/10/99

    Seth is getting back to being a little boy going on two.  He thinks everything should go his way and Samantha and he get into sibling squabbles.  He is a walking, talking, singing tornado.  He loves going for car rides, he can say 'ca ride' now and asks for them from his waking moments until he falls asleep.  I am not joking either, he will open his eyes, smile and ask for a car ride.  Even at 6am it is hard to be upset with the sweet little boy asking for his favorite activity.
    The other great news is concerning his eyesight.  He has limited use in his left eye.  He can see shadows and changes in color.  (This is all a diagnosis from Dr. Kale)  I noticed that he turns his head to lead with his left eye when he is walking.  He seems to notice where large objects are when he is outside.  He doesn't do as well at night, so this shows he is using what he has to his advantage.  This is great news and we will continue to keep you posted.
 
 

A Tremendous Thank You!

• Everyone who has remembered us in prayer and thought.  Thank you to those who have helped spread the word and have gotten more people praying.  God has given us tremendous support through you.  Keep praying because with God's help, Seth has come along way.
• Family and friends members that organized the benefit breakfast in Belfield.
• The Renew group, Knights of Columbus and the students from Holy Family Catholic school for organizing, cooking and serving the benefit breakfast in Coeur d'Alene.
• Family members who have given blood.
• Family and friends who assisted us in many ways (food, babysitting, cleaning....)  The little things are important.
• Keely's co-workers who organized the bake sale and for donating personal leave time.  Our places of work have been tremendously supportive with time off and donating personal leave time.  Thank you.
• The Harvest Hoedown Pageant and all the participants.
• The midwest NAPA stores for their support.
• St. Pius X, our local church.
• The Belfield American Legion.
• The generous anonymous donor.

We appreciate everything that has been done for us, the cards, donations, letters, time and prayers.  Without you, this ordeal would be unbearable.

Check out some pictures of us.

                                    Christmas of 99
 

If you have any questions, email me at lowman@icehouse.net   I will try to answer them and will post them on the web site.

• 11/7/98 - Seth turned 1 year old!  He had a blast opening his presents and eating ice cream.  Pictures to come as soon as they are developed.
• 11/12/98 - We just met with the doctor today and it looks like more trials ahead.  Although the cancer is in remission, the studies of children similar to Seth show high frequency of relapse.  So, after 2 more sessions of Chemo, Seth will undergo stem cell harvesting and bone marrow rescue.  This is done to ensure the cancer in his bone marrow is completely wiped out. Since his cancer didn't start in the marrow, the stem cells (which can regrow bone marrow) can be harvested from his own blood.  Then he will undergo very intensive chemotherapy and some radiation which will kill his bone marrow.  Then the harvested stem cells will be reintroduced into his blood and will regrow the bone marrow.  This treatment is more intense and will have to be done at Fred Hutchinson Hospital in Seattle.
• 12/7/98 - We met with the eye doctor again yesterday.  No changes in Seth's vision, but he said children's vision usually develops until the age of 3.  We are not giving up hope and have put our faith in the Lord to restore his sight.

    On a positive note, Seth's oncologist, Dr Judy, was pleased with his progress going into the last dose of chemo here in Spokane.  The fact that he has not had a relapse yet is a very positive sign as most neuroblastoma patients suffer relapses in the first 5 months.
    We are scheduled to be in Seattle at the Swedish hospital of Fred Hutchinson on the 12th of January.  We will meet with the doctors and Seth will undergo some more tests.  Then they will 'purge' his bone marrow with chemo.  The stem cell recovery will take about 3 weeks and then they will repeat the 'purge' with radiation.  Again, stem cell recovery should take around 3 weeks.
• 1/11/99 - Happy New Year to everyone.  Just wanted to let everyone know how we are doing.  We are traveling to Seattle on Monday the 11th.  On Tuesday, we meet with the doctors to determine the schedule for Seth's treatment.

Three items of good news.
• 1st.  We may only be in Seattle for 2 months.  It looks like he can go through the radiation here in Spokane.  We were originally told that he would have to undergo Stem cell recovery after the Radiation, but now we know he won't.  He will still have to go through the stem cell after the chemotherapy in Seattle.
• 2nd.  He has officially been classified in remission.  We have felt that way for awhile but is good to hear the doctors (pessimistic by trade) say it.
• 3rd.  Started out as bad news, but now is a small miracle.  When they ran all the tests on Seth last week, his spleen had a large dark spot.  The doctors were afraid he had an infection in the spleen.  If it was bad enough it would have to come out and he would have to be on antibiotics until he was 5.  Children under the age of 5 still need the spleen to filter certain enzymes out of the blood.  This operation would have pushed the trip to Seattle back and been very bad news for the bone marrow purging.  (when his immune system gets knocked to zero, he needs all the organs he has working to keep him healthy.)

    So Keely called people and got them praying.  We prayed and so did many others.  And the prayers worked!  When Keely took him in the next day for a biopsy of the spleen, they couldn't find the cause of the dark spots.  The doctors couldn't give any real answer for the disappearance.  So keep the prayers coming.
• 1/17/99

    Well, we are all set up in Seattle now.  We got an apartment just 3 blocks from the hospital so Keely won't have to drive and find parking in Seattle.  (remember, we are originally from North Dakota.)  Meetings with doctors have taken up the first week and will continue this week.  New doctors have to poke and prod Seth all over again.  Actually it is going well.  There system is a little different so we have to get used to it.  Keely will be out there the whole time and I will be bouncing back and forth depending on how the job search is going.
    It is official that we are coming back to Spokane for the radiation.  He won't need the Stem Cell recovery after the radiation as is will be localized to the spots where he had boney tumor.
That is great news because it means only about 2 months out there instead of 3.
Thank you all for your prayers and God Bless.
 
• 2-18-99

    At the last update, we had just gotten settled in Seattle.  For the last 3 weeks, Seth has been in the hospital receiving the chemo, getting the transplant and recovering.  He received his stem cells about 12 days ago and his bone marrow has started to grow.  Last Saturday he actually started to get some counts (White blood cells.)  Thank you for all the prayers and keep it up, he is on the road to recovery.
    It hasn't been without incident though.  We have been in respiratory isolation because he has had the influenza virus for most of the time in the hospital.  He also has been battling an ear infection.  His energy and personality started to come back about a week ago.  For a week, he was lethargic and slept most of the time.
    Monday he suffered another setback.  Due to not having any immune system, he is receiving about a dozen different medications; anti viral, anti-bacterial and anti fungal plus morphine and some anti nausea.  They had to change to a different anti fungal which caused a reaction (common for this med.)  He got the shakes and a very high fever.   They tried it again the next night giving him some hydrocortisone to counteract it beforehand.  He had an even worse reaction with a high pulse rate and had to be put in an oxygen tent.  Only after that did they decide to try a different anti fungal medicine.  He is starting to recover from that but is still wiped out and they have to watch his oxygen level.
    So keep the prayers coming and God Bless.
 
• Seth is out of the hospital!!

3/11/99
    Seth has finally made it to outpatient.  He improved so rapidly that the doctors were even impressed.  About two weeks ago they didn't think he was going to make it.  They just underestimated our little fighter and the power of thousands of people praying for him.  It was an adventurous stay, but with God's help, we made it.
    We only have to stay in Seattle for another week and then we get to come home.  He still isn't eating real well.  Chemotherapy messes with the taste buds so nothing taste good right now.  So we have to keep him on IV nutrition for a while.
    They did a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday.  This is to check the status of his bone marrow for cancer cells.  After we return to Coeur d'Alene he will go through a round of Radiation where he had bony tumors and we get promoted to maintenance status.  We will still be regulars at the outpatient clinic, but no more hospital stays.
 
• We're home!

3/23/99
    Well, after 2 1/2 months in Seattle we are all back home.  Seth was excited to be home.  He quickly returned to his favorite haunts such as banging on the window above our bed.  He continues to regain strength and confidence each day.  We are still working to increase what he eats with some moderate success.
    Before we left Seattle, they did another test on his bone marrow.  The results showed that he still has cancer cells on one side of his pelvis.  It was rather hard news to comprehend after all he went through out there.  But the plan still includes radiation (and his cancer is very susceptible to radiation) and a new treatment with Retin A acid.  This concentrated form of Vitamin A is proving to be a very active cancer fighting agent.  So keep the prayers coming.
    We were back in the Spokane hospital for more scans.  They did a bone scan and CT to set a baseline for the radiation.  Keely said the bone scan looked good with no presence of tumors that her OJT MD degree could see.   The doctor also told us that there was no evidence of tumors.
 
• 4/23/99 Update

    Seth is enjoying himself, loves to be outside and in general being a boy.  He walks quite well with someone holding his hands.  He is always smiling and quite cute now that he has hair.  It is still really short but looks natural now. He loves to make noise and makes sure everyone knows he is the center of attention.  He is exploring bravely now and glad to be back home.  It didn't take him long to remember his favorite activities.  His sister Samantha loves to give him hugs, but he would rather head butt her.  She is also treating one of her dolls to get rid of the "bad cells."
    We were supposed to be done with radiation today but they missed one area and so we have to go in for a last session on Monday.  Seth and a couple other people nearing the end of radiation had a little party today.  The nurses and techs are going to miss him because he always kept them entertained.  His constant jabbering and walks around the clinic brought joy to their mornings.
    We really haven't noticed much difference except for him being a little more tired and irritable at times.  Hopefully he will be spared of the long term effects also.  There is not much other news about Seth to report.  He is just a boy that is happy the weather is getting nice.

    Thanks again for all the prayers.  We will continue to keep you posted.
 
 
 

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