Three Year Transplant-versary

April 13th marked three years since Caden received his life-saving bone marrow transplant. That day is imprinted on my heart; the sights, the sounds, the fear, the hope. Caden’s bone marrow was completely depleted and destroyed by high dose chemotherapy, and two rounds of radiation. Jacob, my oldest son, endured five days of injections, which prepped his body for cell retrieval. Once all of the hundreds of millions of cells were collected and purified, they were brought to Caden’s hospital room, where we prayed and read Psalm 91 over him. The nursing staff came in and sang “Happy Transplant Day” (think Happy Birthday, leukemia edition), and at exactly 7:11 PM, his transplant began. If you’ve been following Caden’s story from the beginning, then you probably remember that 7:11 is Caden’s favorite time, because he loves 7–11 slurpees. Leading up to his transplant, we asked all of our friends and family to stop and pray for him at 7:11 AM and 7:11 PM every day, so when the transplant serendipitously began at his favorite time, it felt divine.

The doctor told me that within hours of receiving the transplant, those new stem cells in his body would find their way to his bone marrow. The fact that they knew exactly where they should go, only pointed all the more to God, in my mind, and how he created our bodies so perfectly and designed every single one of our our cells to know its purpose. After transplant, the wait began for the cells to engraft in his body. The waiting was hard; without any immune system, Caden suffered painful side effects of the chemo and radiation. He developed sores all through his mouth and G.I. tract, and required very high levels of morphine to keep the pain at bay. It was horrible to watch, as his mom. I’ll never forget when we realized that his body was creating blood cells once again, meaning his new bone marrow had set up shop, so to speak. It happened on Jacob’s birthday, 11 days after transplant. A few days after that, Caden was considered fully engrafted. Within a couple months, Caden’s blood type actually changed, since he now had Jacob’s bone marrow in his body, creating a new blood type; he went from O negative blood to A negative. When I first learned this would happen, it absolutely blew my mind. Science is wild.

As we celebrated this three year milestone, Caden was also finishing up his final round of chemo. He completed his five days of IV chemo beginning on April 6th, and he took his last oral chemo medication on the evening of April 19th. God willing, he will never receive chemo again. Since relapse in October 2024, he has completed 10 cycles of chemo, and he has been in remission for the past 11 months. We will do a bone marrow biopsy in mid to late May, and then biopsies will happen pretty frequently over the next year, and hopefully spread out to every six months during the second year. As before, his doctors believe that if he can go two years without relapse, then we will no longer have to worry about the leukemia coming back.

Ending treatment brings up a lot of emotions for all of us. Gratefulness, and fear sit side by side. It has been a long journey, and I have struggled to discern what God is teaching me through it all. I often come back to the fact that I have to place my trust in him above all things. I cannot hold onto anything in this life, because nothing is guaranteed, and everything else is sinking sand.

I’m so thankful for every single one of the days I’ve had with Caden throughout his life, but especially for each of the days we have had together over the last three years. I pray every day for him to have life and longevity, and the chance to share his enduring faith and testimony of healing with others. As we step into a new season, one without chemo, or treatment of any kind, and driven by faith, we appreciate all your prayers for Caden’s continued good health.