Dylan's Fight Against Hodgkin's Lymphoma

My nephew Dylan Dowdell is one of the most beautiful souls out there. Always has a positive attitude and is known for his overwhelming kindness and aptitude for love. He is the first one to offer a hug when needed or to celebrate anyones accomplishment. Now, unfortunately he is the one that needs our love, support, positivity, and help. Dylan was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma on December 13, 2023. Any cancer diagnosis is hard for a family to deal with, but the Dowdells have already had a challenging year with a number of unfortunate medical diagnoses.

It started last year when Dylan's mom, Amy, was diagnosed with a rare infection in her lungs, Mycobacterium Abscessus. Amy had to take a leave of absence from her job for 4 months. During that time, she had to have a PICC line put in and had to self administer a cocktail of several IV antibiotics daily. Followed by months of additional medication. This forced the family to drain their savings to make ends meet. During this treatment, Dylan was diagnosed with a rare and debilitating kidney disease, IgA nephropathy (IGAN or Berger disease). At the time of his diagnosis, Dylan's parents were told there is a 40% chance that he will need to be on dialysis and put on a list for a kidney transplant. This was horrible news but Dylan took it in stride and positivity as always. With great treatment from his nephrologist it became manageable with medication, diet, and exercise. Then the unimaginable happened. During Dylan's annual physical in late August, the PA noticed a pea sized lump on his neck. Amy and Don were told to keep an eye on it and if it got much bigger to come back. By the end of October it was the size of a golf ball. Dylan was put on antibiotics to fight what the pediatric staff thought was an infection. On the day of his closing performance of Matilda, he had an ultrasound. The next day the antibiotics that he was on caused a horrific allergic reaction. He was treated with Benadryl and steroids for a week. The ultrasound results indicated a need for a surgical consult. After several weeks of waiting they finally saw the surgeon on November 29th, only to be told that Dylan needed an emergency lymph node biopsy the next day. They removed 3 nodes to be biopsied. On December 13, 2023 the family was told that Dylan has Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Just when everyone was coming to terms with Dylan's diagnosis and Dylan had started chemotherapy, another horrible blow to the family occurred. On Saturday, January 20th Amy was rushed to the hospital via ambulance. She was diagnosed with Diabetic Ketoacidosis, DKA, caused by what her endocrinologist believes is late onset Type 1 diabetes.

Like so many moms, she was so focused on Dylan's treatment and keeping her older son Jack's senior year on track that she didn’t register that her own health was suffering.

Amy and Don were already going to have to miss work to be home with Dylan while he undergoes his multiple chemo treatments for his cancer and hydration tangents to protect his kidneys. Now Amy will also need to take a leave of absence to recover from DKA and learn how to treat her diabetes. Their savings is completely depleted from last year's medical expenses and they are struggling to find the funds to be able to afford all of the out of pocket expenses associated with Dylan's cancer treatments and day to day expenses. The journey will be challenging for them because this isn’t a typical cancer situation. In a normal situation with proper medical supervision and lifestyle choices, Dylan's kidneys would probably function well into adulthood. Unfortunately, the cocktail of chemotherapy he is taking will likely destroy his kidney function. With each chemo treatment he sits for hours enduring an additional hydration treatment to protect the kidneys in the hopes that it will delay or the inevitable. They were told that chemo will possibly be followed by radiation as well.

So many people have asked how they can help. Due to the multiple challenges this family has going on, we are asking for donations for them to be able to afford the expenses associated with Dylan's cancer treatment. We appreciate all the love and support his community has already shown for him.