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Ryan Patrick Breedlove 
Our journey began on September 12, 2003. Ryan was only 4 months old. During a routine well visit, we were told Ryan had what appeared to be a white reflex in his eye. Soon we were seeing a pediatric eye specialist who told us he thought Ryan had a form of eye cancer called bilateral Retinoblastoma.
Within a week we were seen at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. After confirming our worst fear, our baby started his first round of chemotherapy. Ryan had 7 rounds of chemotherapy every 3 weeks. He was unable to receive his 8th round of chemotherapy in March due to his blood counts. After a short period, the tumors appeared to be stable. In April, the tumor in Ryan's right eye spread too close to the optic nerve. We immediately started external radiation every day for 5 weeks. During this time, Ryan turned a year old on May 12, 2004. He celebrated with another buddy at the Ronald McDonald House.
God knows what each of us can handle at specific times. The day after his birthday, Ryan was tested for a rare genetic disorder called 13Q minus due to obvious developmental delays. We soon began another part of Ryan's journey. He is missing genes on the 13th chromosome. At this point, Ryan's doctor, Dr. Galindo, informed us that he wasn't sure what Ryan would be able to do physically, cognitively, and socially.
The months following included PT, OT, speech, and various other services. To date we are actively involved in therapy and making good progress though it is slow.
In July, the tumor in Ryan's left eye required internal plaque radiation where we were inpatient at St. Jude for about a week.
Thanks to the literally hundreds of prayers, our next visit revealed nothing but scar tissue in both of his eyes. Thus the healing began. It is now January 2010 and no tumor growth or changes. Praise God!
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Journal
Sunday, January 10, 2010 2:28 PM CST Here we are in 2010. I can't believe how fast last year went. We are moving into 2010 with a lot of cold weather. As a matter of fact, the boys were out of school this past Friday for snow. It was also very cold. We continue to stay below freezing as of today.
Will and Ryan are back into the swing of school again. Ryan is loving school this year. He especially likes gym. He is playing leap frog and doing a lot of the activities the other children are doing. He is walking and sometimes running (a fast walk). We are in amazement as he gains more independance daily. God is so good. Now we are going to really try and focus on eating and potty training. Who knows? Maybe next year he will be eating table food and going to the potty. Oh, how so many people take these things for granted. We never do. We know that God has slowed down the process for us to see his glory revealed. Ryan is also saying lots of cute things. He is quite funny. He does a lot of things he sees his brother doing. Some of these things aren't so great. If you have boys, you will know how much they like body sounds and burps. ha ha
Will is still playing the piano and liking it. He is a typical nine year old. He loves to spend more and more time with his buddies and away from his mom and dad. He is still into BSF, reading, playing the Wii and being silly. I can't believe he has one more year at the elementary school and then he'll be at the middle school.
I just wanted to update quickly. I know it has been a while.
Blessings,
Amy
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Hospital Information: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
332 North Lauderdale Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 495.3300
Links: http://www.stjude.org Home page of St. Jude Children's Reasearch Hospital
http://www.thesurvivormovie.com/ An Example of how to survive Cancer!
http://www.habitatforhope.org/ Learn more about this awesome organization!
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