More Improvements

Emily Spector
Jul 23, 2024
2 min read

Little by little, Liam has continued to improve! His fevers are spacing further apart. He’s eating more. He’s only needing oxygen occasionally. And he’s starting to get out of bed a little. The nourishment that he is recieving through the feeding tube is providing him with a little more energy. Physical Therapy has also begun working with him to recover his strength.

Our medical team believes that Liam’s worsening symptoms over the last several weeks were caused by Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (IRIS). Essentially, once his immune system returned after Phase 1 of cancer treatment, it overreacted to the fungal infection causing him to get more and more ill. They started Liam on steroids this past weekend and he began to improve immediately.

Today, Liam started a really intense chemotherapy. This particular chemo is hard on the kidneys, so they had to prehydrate him with a ton of fluids, and premedicate him. After the chemo, they have to continue flushing his system, and this will continue throughout the night. Liam will be getting this chemo every day for the next several days. This is a bit of a scary week because Liam’s immune system will die. The hope is that the fungal infection is now under control. If it’s not, without the immune system in place, it could spread further and be fatal.

Our leading oncologist mentioned that Liam has had several rare complications (fungal infection, biopsy hypothermia reaction, and IRIS) during his treatment at Mary Bridge, and if he continues to have other similar complications, they will have to send us to Seattle Children’s Hospital for more complex care.

Thank you for praying for our sweet boy. The Lord is working and He is with us.

How to Pray:

Please pray that the fungal infection does not spread in Liam’s body.

Please pray that when Liam's immune system dies from chemo that other infections do not set in and that his immune system returns quickly.

Please pray that Liam tolerates the chemo this week and doesn’t experience nausea.

Please pray that leukemia does not return

Please pray that Liam's little body can handle all of the medications that he’s on (steroids, anti-fungals, and chemo) and that there wouldn’t be any long-term damage.

Please pray for wisdom for us and our doctors regarding the potential transfer to Seattle Children’s Hospital.