Hunter LiveStrong: April 2011

THE BEGINNING

January of 2007 we found a small lump on Hunters back located just under the skin, between the shoulder blades. The doctor told us it was a fatty tumor or sebaceous cyst, and it would get bigger, then smaller and go away. If it grew, or bothered him we could have it removed. June 27th it was removed in surgery and on July 3 we were back for a check up of the area and were told he had, cancer, Ewing's Sarcoma PNET (of the soft tissue surrounding the bone). A year of Chemo was started, which consisted being in the hospital every 21 days for 6 or 3 days at a time. He underwent a second surgery in October 2007 to clear the margins. On May 27th of 2008 he finished chemo and was "Cancer Free".

He was scanned and examined on regular intervals and his last clear scans were on August 19th 2009. October 28th 2009 we noticed a lump in the original tumor location. After a biopsy on October 29th, we were told the next day that the cancer has returned. The central line was put back in his chest on November 2nd and a series of tests have begun to determine the extent of the disease. Please view "posting" dated November 7, 2009 for treatment plan...

Friday, April 29, 2011

Hunter (April 2011)

Hunter recently had his monthly check up and all went well. He has been feeling good and most of all he has been loving life which is a great thing to see.

Hunter has been a bus boy at Dalton's in Cypress for about 10 months and now he is also working at Tortilla Jo's in downtown Disney. He's been busy working mainly at Tortilla Jo's and Sunday mornings at Dalton's, but loving every minute of it. There is no better joy than watching him get so much joy out of life and what we call daily chaos.

Hunter committed to Cal State Long Beach and he will be living at home at least the first semester of college. Hunter really wants to live at the dorms or away from home and experience the whole college life but that will depend on what scholarships he receives. As of now he will just wait to see what happens and enjoy the rest of his high school days. He will be graduating on June 15, 2011 with all of his classmates and FRIENDS. I'm sure that this will be a really emotional day, but one that we are extremely looking forward to.

We truly want to THANK each and everyone of our friends and family for all of the love and support we have gotten through-out the past four years. We wish that there was some way we could express how much we appreciate all that was done to support Hunter and our family. We are truly blessed in many ways ... THANK YOU ...

All of our LOVE,
The Herrick Family,
Joseph, Jeanna, Lauryn, Hunter and Maddison