Fight like Atlas

03/15/2026

Atlas broke his fever this morning and is doing well, thank you all for the love and support 💗

On another note- I follow with his oncologist very closely and her recommendations along with the team, please refrain from giving advice or anything like that because it does get overwhelming. His team and I have it under control, I share things here so everyone can continue to love and support Atlas.

I get overwhelmed at times, and understandably so- dealing with this alone and also having more added onto our plate was not something we expected or needed. We’ve gotten incredibly lucky with illnesses this year, so it’s expected that he would get sick at some point. But to catch 2 viruses while being in his hospital room is very frustrating to me and overwhelming. If he had been neutropenic- it would have been so much worse and so scary. When children with cancer get sick, it’s a whole different story than when a healthy child gets sick.

Thank you again for the support.

03/14/2026

Yet another pleasant surprise, he has influenza B also 😭 the rest of us in the household are fully vaccinated for it, but my goodness- poor baby Atlas picked up a lot in the hospital 😭😭

*also! We left the hospital room maybe once. He didn’t touch anything. He didn’t go anywhere last weekend or the week prior and his sister is completely healthy. This is so insane 😭

03/14/2026

Mister Atlas isn’t neutropenic, his counts are good! Seems like lil dude caught a virus while we were inpatient- he’s pretty miserable and exhausted.

They had to access both sides of his port which is very traumatic for him.

It takes about a day to get cultures back from his port. He started antibiotics already. Hopefully he can sleep soon.

Late night scares, no sleep! We haven’t had a night like this since August.

We should be discharged today!

03/14/2026

Atlas spiked a fever, so back out to Iowa city we go!

03/14/2026

Home & comfy. Still coughing but happy 🩷

03/13/2026

Sweet Atlas threw up this morning and has been coughing, the plan is still to go home today though! 😞

03/12/2026

Atlas’s bone marrow is CLEAR!! 🩷😭

03/10/2026

Atlas learned how to do somersaults today and then wore himself out 😂🩷 he’s doing well with chemo!

03/09/2026

03/09/2026

Gaia told me last night, “mom, I really wish Atlas didn’t have cancer, I wish he was better. I hate it when you guys go away. My happiness goes away with you and I miss you.” Gaia girl cried on and off all night last night and this morning.

I can’t imagine how her little heart feels. For her whole life it’s been me and her, and then Atlas. The three of us always, everywhere. And then suddenly Atlas and I are ripped away from her every 3 weeks for a week and she’s just expected to function like normal- like nothings happening. Her world keeps spinning but she feels devastated.

I wish I could make it better. I wish I could take the pain from both of them. My heart is constantly tied between 2 places.

03/07/2026

I want to say- last night was the first good night of sleep our family has had since December. I’ve been holding my breath since his last scans, since I advocated for a chemo change and lorlatnib, since I got the process going at NYC. I can breathe again.

Thank you again everyone for being so supportive and sweet. We have such a long journey ahead still and it’s still absolutely terrifying- but he has a real chance of remission now. First, surgery in New York.

Why NYC? Sloan Kettering Memorial is there. That hospital is specifically known for neuroblastoma specialized care and has the most qualified surgeons in the US. They can operate confidently on Atlas’s tumor, and get the guidelines since it lays on his inferior vena cava. Mega high risk, mega scary surgery.

Monday, we’re back inpatient for Chemo.

I want to clarify due to a few comments- Atlas has never been on hospice. Palliative care was on the table, palliative care is important for comfort and pain management. We didn’t know if Atlas would be receptive to chemo or not, so we had to have the hard discussions!

(Also- palliative care is not end of life care, I find it important and he would be on it if he was in any sort of pain that we couldn’t manage.)

Also- for anyone asking how to help, GFM. Now our focus is getting out to NYC and plane tickets and needing to eat and such while there. I don’t know when it’ll happen, but it will be soon. Here’s the link:

https://gofund.me/f97154cc5

Thank you to those who have donated to help my little family survive this. Going from being the sole provider for us, to not being able to work whatsoever has been unfathomable and hard. I wouldn’t be able to support us without all of you.

03/07/2026

Thank you everyone for the kind comments, I appreciate all the love and support!!

Great news!!

Atlas’s abdominal tumor which has been our biggest worry, has shrunk!! It is now 5x5 cm, previously 7.4 x 6.3 cm!

He has NO new growths. No new Mets. His lesions on his skull are STABLE!

His abdominal tumor is less miBG avid, which means fewer active neuroblastoma cells!!

This means we can move forward with surgery at Sloan Kettering- and stem cell transplant is officially back on the table.

This is exactly the news we needed, and even better than we could’ve imagined. 🩷😭