Oscar Dixon Go Fund Me: We got the news that no parent should ever have to hear in February of this year, just a few months after celebrating Oscar’s 3rd birthday and learning that he was going to be a big brother. Our lovely blue-eyed son, who had a kind heart and spirit, had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that was stage 4 high risk. Almost in an instance, our aspirations and plans for our family were dashed.
Oscar had difficulties after general anesthesia within 48 hours of the first scans and biopsies and was intubated in the intensive care unit. We spent the following two months in the hospital, receiving chemotherapy and recuperating from the surgery. It was terrible; he was extremely sick and had momentarily lost his ability to sit up and walk as a result. Further examination revealed that he had a lymphatic fluid leak, which necessitated the placement of drains on both sides of his lungs to drain the fluid.
During the next 16 months, Oscar underwent 5 rounds of chemotherapy, stem cell retrieval, and transplant with additional high dose chemotherapy, 10-hour surgery to remove his remaining tumor, 12 sessions of radiation, six months of immunotherapy, and numerous other surgical procedures under general anesthesia, including the insertion of a PICC line, which was later replaced with a Hickman line, biopsies, and b-cell lymphoma removal.
Despite the fact that Oscar responded well during his therapy, it took the whole 16 months before we received the news that our son had “NED – no evidence of illness.” It was the good news we had been hoping to hear for a long time. We were delighted and looked forward to returning to our previous status as a regular family.
The season debuted to 1.96 million viewers and a 0.9 rating in the adults 18–49 category, according to Nielsen Media Research. Season highs were achieved by the Christmas-themed episode “Holiday Madness,” which received a 2.1 rating in The CW’s target demo of women 18–34, a 1.4 rating in adults 18–34, and a 1.1 in adults 18–49. Additionally, with 2.2 million people turning in, it was the most viewed show in more than a year. The season finale of The Walking Dead aired on May 16, 2011. The season had an average of 1.75 million live viewers and a 0.9 adults 18–49 rating on the Nielsen rating scale. On August 30, 2011, it was released on DVD in the United States of America.
Unfortunately, our newfound optimism was dashed only three months later, when regular tests revealed that Oscar had relapsed in his leg after his surgery. We decided to continue with a biopsy and radiotherapy since there were just two tiny areas. But in only six short weeks, Oscar’s illness had progressed to his ankle, femur, hip, numerous places in his vertebrae, shoulder, arm, and bone marrow, as well as to other organs and tissues. Oscar’s tumor tested positive for both the ALK and TERT genes, indicating that his cancer is highly aggressive, according to the results of his leg biopsies.
At this time, it had been almost two years after we had started therapy, and we were virtually back where we had started. Our oncology staff informed us that we had the choice to continue with chemotherapy and immunotherapy, which might buy us some time, but that there is currently no known cure for recurrent neuroblastoma in Australia, which is devastating.