Back when I was first getting into supras I had an 83 supra. And if it wasn't for all the help Dan offered me I don't know if I would have stayed in the supra game.
Both Dan and Stephanie are a couple of the nicest people I have met and very helpful.
To help with medical costs there is this link where you can make donations.
Stephanies paypal is gpxchick@hotmail.com Any amount is appreciated.
Here is a link to monitor his recovery. www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylerburdick
http://www.sctimes.com/article/20090807/NEWS01/108070007
Both Dan and Stephanie are a couple of the nicest people I have met and very helpful.
To help with medical costs there is this link where you can make donations.
Stephanies paypal is gpxchick@hotmail.com Any amount is appreciated.
Here is a link to monitor his recovery. www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylerburdick
http://www.sctimes.com/article/20090807/NEWS01/108070007
stctimes said:At his routine four-month checkup, Tyler Burdick’s doctors noticed that he looked a bit pale.They decided to run some blood tests, just to make sure everything was OK. Stephanie, Tyler’s mother, didn’t think much of it. Her 2-year-old son Dawson was always pale, too.
So when the doctor called 30 minutes later and told Stephanie to get her husband Dan and come back in with Tyler, she was stunned.
“There was no sign that he was sick,” she said.
Tyler’s blood work came back abnormal and doctors later determined that he had leukemia.
Tyler was diagnosed in June with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of the disease in children. He is one of fewer than 100 infants who are diagnosed with the disease each year nationwide, Dr. Jawhar Rawwas said. Rawwas is Tyler’s doctor at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
The rare disease is treated with chemotherapy, Rawwas said.
“It’s still a challenge for treatment because in babies leukemia is more aggressive and harder to treat,” he said.
The disease develops when cancer cells multiply rapidly in bone marrow and leave no space for healthy blood cells to grow, Rawwas said.
A decline in white blood cells results, increasing the risk for infection. There is also a decline in red blood cells, increasing the risk for anemia. And there are fewer platelets, meaning blood may not clot, making minor injuries dangerous.
Rawwas said Tyler is in the middle of risk level for complications during treatment. An infant diagnosed at younger than 3 months is considered high risk, he said. They are the hardest to treat, he said. But Tyler was diagnosed at 4 months and his white blood cell count wasn’t elevated, which is a good sign.
Doctors started Tyler on chemotherapy right away. After the first month he went into remission, meaning less than 5 percent of the cells are leukemia cells.
“But know that we’re not done yet,” Rawwas said.
Tyler will have a year of chemotherapy, which he gets through an IV. Rawwas said the treatment isn’t painful but Tyler has to be in the hospital so doctors can monitor side effects.
The first few months of chemo are the worst, he said. But later in his treatment Tyler should be able to get medication at home.
The diagnosis meant life came to a halt for the family that was just starting to get used to having two children. Simple things like having two little boys splash in the bathtub together were put on hold.
The family that used to take bike trips around their neighborhood is now scattered. Dan stays in St. Cloud to work nights at T.O. Plastics Inc. in Clearwater, Dawson stays with relatives in Princeton, and Stephanie and Tyler are together in the Twin Cities during the week, then she leaves on the weekends to see Dan and Dawson.
“No matter where I go, I’m leaving someone behind,” she said.
The couple stays in touch via Web cams and chats on instant messaging services.
While being apart is hard, Stephanie has gotten into the rhythm of being at the hospital with Tyler. She sleeps in his room and learned more medical jargon than she ever wanted to.
She continues to nurse Tyler because doctors have said it helps his immunity, not to mention it helps soothe him.
Chemotherapy took a lot out of Tyler. He lost his voice, so his family couldn’t tell if he was crying unless they saw him. His abdomen got big as his spleen and liver enlarged, which is normal during treatment.
Tyler goes through physical therapy to make sure he keeps up with normal stages of development, since the medication causes muscle weakness. He had to relearn how to hold his head up.
Tyler was home for several days this past week between rounds of chemotherapy. Stephanie had to learn how to flush his IV and give him daily shots.
Stephanie said being home seemed to improve Tyler’s mood.
“He was really smiling and happy,” she said.
Stephanie and Dan are taking things day by day. They say they’ll worry about medical bills later.
For now they focus on Tyler and Dawson.
But they have thought about one way they can help in the future. Stephanie and Dan let doctors take some of Tyler’s bone marrow for future testing. It’s because of past testing that doctors have learned how to treat Tyler, they say.
“It’s the least we can do to pay back,” Dan said.