ABOUT jaxen

Jaxen is a five year old pediatric cancer survivor.

jaxen’S story

On September 5th 2019 2 year old Jaxen was diagnosed with what they suspected was a Wilm’s tumor, a form of kidney cancer. From that moment on things escalated quickly. Then next day, on September 6th 2019 Jaxen was in a big surgery to remove his left kidney, adrenal gland, several lymph nodes and get a port placed in his chest in preparation for chemotherapy. The surgeon removed a 2 pound tumor out of his little 27 pound body that had completely taken over his abdomen. Jaxen spent an initial 4 days in the hospital but recovered from the surgery well and we were able to go home. However about 5 days after being home we started suspecting something wasn’t quite right with him as his belly was getting very large again and he was in pain. On the morning Jaxen was supposed to start chemo we got the news that he was having a very rare but very major complication called a chylous leak.

jaxen’S PARENTS

This is what began the process of our two-week inpatient stay at Children’s Hospital and when we first heard of Metro Youth Foundation. We, as his parents, felt like we were drowning at this time. My husband runs his own business, and I am a nurse at the hospital. Bills were starting to add up with the time away from our jobs and we couldn’t make our normal income. It was all very overwhelming. I remember a very kind social worker in the hospital sat down with us and started going through some of the resources that were available to help get us through this hard time. Metro Area Youth Foundation assisted us with paying some of our utility bills through the entirety of Jaxen’s treatment. It was one less thing that we had to focus on so our sick kiddo could get every bit of the focus that he needed and deserved. To say that a weight was lifted off our shoulders is just putting it lightly. How do you thank someone for helping you through the unimaginable?

jaxen’S journey

Fast-forward through 3 more surgeries and almost 6 months of chemo and in March of 2020 we got the best new of our lives that out Jaxen was cancer free! It was an incredible moment after a journey of so much uncertainty. We would not have made it through our journey without the help of Metro Youth Area Foundation.