MEET OWEN DANGELSER

This is Owen’a second battle with cancer. When Owen was 12 he began having neck and arm pain. Owen is a very active boy and played sports and rides anything with wheels. So Owen always had bumps and bruises. I took him to the emergency department where they told us he had a broken arm. The next day he went to the orthopedic specialist who stated he did not have a broken arm. Owens pain increased and we had went to the emergency department multiple times in the next two weeks, continued to get turned away, until one morning he woke up and he could not lift his arms. I had called ORA who said take him to the university.

Owen had an MRI and they thought he possible had blood or fluid pushing against his spinal cord causing the pain. He went in for emergency surgery and after 6 hours the doctor came in and told me a parents nightmare. It was a tumor and it was cancerous. Further testing determined that he had Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. They had removed as much as the tumor as they could and treated the remainder with high dose chemotherapy. Owen flew through treatment, he was sick at times but never complained as he just wanted to be home and return to normal. After treatment was complete and he was considered in remission, neurosurgery notified Owen that due to his surgery he could no longer play contact sports. Which meant no more wrestling, we were devastated, but remained positive as he was healthy and he beat cancer!

Three years after Owen had completed treatment. He began loosing weight. He had lost about 15 pounds. He was pale, and sick. I originally took him to his pediatrician and he was diagnosed with Mono. A month after being diagnosed with mono, Owen continued to be very sick. Throwing up daily. He just did not look good. I had scheduled a follow up oncology appointment as I just wanted to have piece of mind that it did not return and was scheduled for the following week when the school nurse called and said she had Owen in the nurses office and he was sick and just did not look good. I took him to his pediatrician that day. His doctor did a thorough exam and and felt a supraclavicular lymph node. He then contacted the University of Iowa children’s hospital who directed us to the local hospital for an X-ray and blood work. Owens labs came back and his WBC was 60, his hemoglobin was 5 and his RBC were low as well. They sent us directly to be admitted to the oncology floor at the university. Owen had further blood work that indicated that he has Acute myeloid Leukemia, which is a result of one of the chemo medications he was on with his prior diagnosis.

Owen has remained inpatient. He has received multiple blood products. Received chemo. And remains in the hospital until his blood counts stabilize. Owen turned 16 while inpatient as well. He remains the strong, outgoing boy that beat cancer once.