An Unbelievable Nightmare

My brother Ken and sister in law, Carolyn, asked that we set up this site to help inform their family and friends about their son Nick and his illness. The following post is from Ken:

The Lynch family is experiencing an unbelievable nightmare.

Friday, May 12, our 8 year old son, Nick was diagnosed with a rare cancer. This is the same little boy that just 12 days ago was "taking the field with the A's" and running wild at the Eureka Country Faire. He said he had a tummy ache on the following Monday. After a couple of doctor visits and some blood tests, a friend and fellow Lakeside parent got us in to see a specialist. The specialist expedited Nick's case and he was in emergency surgery last night for a biopsy and now starts the long and miserable treatment process. So far, here is what we know:

1/1/98 - 4/30/2006
Nickie New Year was the first baby born in Roseville in 1998 and a big picture of him was on the front page of the Roseville Press Tribune. He was totally healthy with nothing but an occasional cold or sniffles. He plays baseball, loves to fish, and his outgoing personality resulted in many friendships. He is liked by everyone.

5/1/2006 - Nick says he is tired and does not want to go to school. We are sure he is faking since he is an early bird on Monday's and he had a busy weekend. We let him stay home. He complains of a tummy ache on Tuesday, has a fever by Wednesday and we take him to the Dr. who says he is fine but orders a blood and stool test. Nick was in good spirits but not himself.

5/8/2006 - 5/12/2006 Nick still not right. We are more concerned. Carolyn takes him to the Dr. again and demanded more blood tests, stool samples, etc. One Dr. tells her she is overreacting and to stop reading the Internet. Another blood test gets ordered and Carolyn mentions the situation to Mary Ingersoll at a little league game. Mary gets Nick an appt. with Dr. Yinka Davies in Sacramento for Friday. On Thursday night we get the blood results and 3 levels are elevated. On Friday morning, Dr. Davies takes one look at the on-line blood results and immediately sends us across the street to get a CT Scan. The technician does the scan and says wait here. Then says, go back and see Dr. Davies. She says, go see Dr. Gates for surgery later that night for a mass in his abdomen. They know it is cancer but do not tell us....we get the picture and notify family that something is terribly wrong.

5/12/2006 - 11pm - The surgery is complete and Dr. Gates tell us it is Neuroblastoma and it is our worst nightmare. The situation sounded hopeless.

5/13/2006 - 9am - Dr. Yim (Head Oncologist) tells us we know the following....Nick has a tumor, it is malignant and the preliminary diagnosis from the pathologist is Neuroblastoma. He goes on to tell us that he is cautiously optimistic that the cancer is stage 3 which is treatable.

5/14/2006 - All signs still point to stage 3 but we will not know for sure until Tuesday. Dr. Yim will not speculate on treatment types or comment on survival rates, etc. We are hopeful and optimistic for a stage 3 confirmation on Tuesday....but we just don't know!

*********Website Links Follow************


http://imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancer.gov/CDR0000258023.html
http://www.cancerindex.org/ccw/guide2n.htm
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_2_3x.asp?dt=31
http://www.curesearch.org/