Our journey started the day Mason was born.  After several abnormal blood texts after he was born, we were sent to a specialist.  The specialist informed us that Mason had Transient Myeloproliferative Disorder which is abnormal, immature blood cells in the blood and bone marrow.  The good news was that this disorder would most likely resolve itself; the bad news was if he were to ever comeback, it would return as leukemia.  As they told us, the disorder resolved itself.  We checked Mason’s blood, once a month, then every other month, then every three months, then every six months.  As we were visiting the doctor on his second six months, and we were about to be released for a year, Mason’s blood work came back abnormal.  We were sent home to enjoy the Christmas holidays, and the doctor would retest because of some potential fluke in the testing.  After coming back for the retest, we found out it was no fluke.  As we were told that our 15-month-old had cancer, all types of thoughts and concerns go through your mind.  We were scared, hurt, and in disbelief and not knowing what the future would be like.

In January, Mason had a spinal tap to determine what type of blood cancer he had.  The first spinal tap was inconclusive.  The second one came back the same so Mason’s diagnosis changed from leukemia to Myelodysplastic Syndrome.  Mason had approximately 9 to 10% of abnormal cells which did not fall in a leukemia diagnosis.  Myelodysplastic Syndrome is treated as he had leukemia so that meant that Mason was treated as if he had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).  Mason’s treatment entailed six months of in-patient treatment which meant he had to spend the six months in the hospital minus small breaks in between chemo treatment.  As a family, we basically moved into Inova Children’s Hospital.

Our stay at the hospital was a roller coaster as you can imagine.  But the shining star was Mason.  While he was in the hospital, he showed resilience, happiness, and friendliness.  He handled his treatment like a champ!  He learned how to walk while in the hospital among many other things.  By the end of our stay, everybody on the floor knew who Mason was.  We, as parents, learned a lot from Mason during that six months.  Life lessons that we will always cherish.  Mason finished treatment on July 31, 2015 and is currently nine years in remission!

We are so appreciative of every doctor, every nurse, and every employee at the hospital.  We bonded with families that were going through exactly what we were going through.  You never forget this type of experience, and because of that we have started the Boldly Gold Foundation.  The mission is to provide physical, emotional, and financial support to the children and their families impacted by childhood cancer.  This is our way of giving back to all of those that gave to us.