Noah Moreland

January 2019

Noah is an amazing 9 year old boy who turns 10 on January 1st. He loves doing what 9 year old boys do! Whether its playing video games, playing with Legos, putting puzzles together, creating with clay, climbing anything in sight….Haha. He is an extremely active boy. He has 6 Siblings. 4 older Sisters, one younger Brother and one younger Sister. 

In September of this year, he fell ill. While his Mother (Lindsy) and I are use to the children sharing their illnesses, Noah was the last to get sick, and it was quickly evident that he was not getting any better. His Mother and I have been divorced for 6 years, so the kids go back and forth between us. Lindsy had taken Noah to Urgent Care, to be told that he only needed to increase his calorie intake. There had been some confusion with the clinic over his insurance, and they had told Lindsy that they would not do any blood work unless she could pay. Ridiculous, as Noah is on my private insurance. I picked him up the following day and scheduled for him to be seen with his Primary.  5 hours after the lab work, I received a phone call directly from his Physician stating he needed to be taken to the ER right away. There were abnormalities in his blood.

While in the ER, they proceeded to do more blood work and told us that his blood counts from earlier that day were extremely low. More lab work confirmed that he had very low White Blood Cells, Red Blood Cells and Platelets. He received 3 units of red blood, and 2 units of platelets that very night.

After the first 2 weeks of hospitalization, during which he had daily blood work, culture tests, and biopsies both at Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford near home, and when flown to OHSU, we learned that he does not have Leukemia, which was our first thought. However, over the course of the next month, he was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia, Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Immunodeficiency Disorder, and White Blood Cell Disease.

The cause of which is unknown. Noah went from being a healthy active growing boy, to a deathly ill little fella in a matter of a few weeks. We pursued a bone marrow transplant, as due to the factors of his diagnoses, having discussions with both Doctors and Homeopathic Clinics, our best option was a transplant. The next couple months consisted of weekly Doctor visits and blood and platelet transfusions.

   We found a matched Donor. 10 out of 10. Praise the Lord!

Noah was admitted to Doernbecher Children's Hospital on December 7th of this year. He started Chemo the following day. He had one day of total body radiation on the 12th, and had his transplant on the 13th. It has been a rough couple of weeks. Many days were filled with Noah saying how he "can't keep living this way." and "I can't take it, I don't want to anymore." Heartbreaking words coming from a child. 

Update:

The transplant went well. No major reactions. As of two days ago, his Absolute Neutrophil Count has started rising. So far, the graft is working. We still have 85 days here. We’re 300 miles away from our homes, his Siblings. He is in much better spirits, as the Chemo and Radiation effects seem to be wearing off. His hair started coming out a few days ago, and he decided to build a nest. HaHa. My Noah, My Superhero.