Wednesday Warrior – Colton

Colton, now 11, was diagnosed on November 27, 2012, at the age of 9 with Ewing’s Sarcoma. He had a knot come up on his left ankle three months before while playing football.  He was not in pain, didn’t have a fever, etc.  I had noticed that the knot was getting larger one night after football practice, so I decided to call his foot and ankle doctor the next morning for appointment as Colton had prior feet problems.  A day later he scheduled a MRI and CT, but no blood work.  After endless negative results, the doctor decided to cut the mass out.  We scheduled surgery for November 19, 2012, to remove the mass.  The mass was sent off for testing and on November 27 we were called into his office to receive the results that no parents ever want to hear – Colton has a rare bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma.  The next day we called an oncologist that had been referred to us, and surgery for his port and 1st chemo was on December 19, 2012.  He had bone marrow removed, a port placed (they ruptured his left lung while placing the port), received 14 treatments of chemo, and six weeks of radiation.  He had numerous visits to the ER with fevers, chicken pox, mucositis, pancreatitis, bronchitis, (3)blood infections, numerous blood transfusions, and platelets!! He is now 15 month out with clear scans, but with some side effects from chemo and radiation.  He loves playing baseball, WWE wresting, Alabama football, the Atlanta Braves, Xbox, music, and is a 6th grader with A/B honor roll taking advanced classes! He loves to share his story about his long road with cancer and helping raise awareness for childhood cancer.

If you or a loved one has been impacted by sarcoma cancer, we encourage you to share your story. Sharing your story can be such an inspiration to others who are dealing with sarcoma in their own life and remind us all of the urgency to find better treatments in order to make an impact on the devastation that sarcoma cancer brings. Let your experiences help others become involved with raising awareness!