Elijah H. - Quilt Finished in 2009
Born: February 15, 2004
Illness: Neuroblastoma - Stage IV High Risk
A Thank You From Elijah's Family!
6/4/09
I wanted to let you know that we did receive the beautiful Western quilt a few weeks ago and Eli got a big smile the moment he saw it. All of the cowboy boots and horses and other "cowboy" related items were all huge hits. In fact, Eli now uses his quilt at night as his blanket to stay warm and it's a constant staple in our room every night.
Thank you so much for reaching out to us and blessing us in this way. It's so great to not only have the quilt, but to know how much thought and prayer and love went into making it. We are so grateful to have you all praying for Eli.
Thanks again for the great gift. I talked to Jennifer A. (Trey's mom) and she said they still have and use their western quilt as well and love it. We will certainly look forward to using ours for many years to come.
In Him,
Aaron and Eli
Elijah H.'s Story
Written by Elijah's dad Aaron in March 2009
Elijah (Eli) was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma on June 29th, 2007 at around the age of three and a half. He had a massive tumor growing in his body that went from his pelvis, up through his abdomen, and up into his chest.
Eli was being treated in Iowa City at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital until November of 2007. The plan in Iowa City was like most plans around the country, to give Eli 5 rounds of chemo, surgically remove whatever tumor is left in his abdomen, and then do tandem autologous stem cell transplants. It is a very dangerous and extremely high dose chemotherapy that basically wipes out all of your body's stem cells, then you rescue their body by transplanting them with their own stem cells you harvested earlier in the process.
We came to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City in October for the hands of Dr. LaQuaglia who performed Eli's surgery to remove the tumor from around his aorta, his kidney arteries, and everywhere else the tumor was still found. People come from all over the world to have Dr. LaQuaglia do their neuroblastoma surgery. He is an amazing surgeon. During the time we were here, we learned about Sloan's alternative to stem cell transplants. The team here uses antibody treatments that highlight the neuroblastoma cells and makes your own body attack the cancer. Even though it is considered more "experimental", it has a good track record and we feel that there is much more experience with this cancer here in NYC. We decided to stay here and complete two more rounds of chemo (total of 7) and have started the 3F8 treatments (nine rounds completed before developing an immunity to the treatment called HAMA).
Eli had a new neuroblastoma tumor discovered on his brain on February 11th, 2009 and is currently undergoing chemo, radiation, and a different antibody treatment called 8H9 to once again return to a state of NED (no evidence of disease).
