Fritz’s Fight against Neuroblastoma

The day before Fritz’s fourth birthday, (which we’ve lovingly termed “Fritzmas” as his birthday falls on Christmas Eve), Fritz was officially diagnosed with neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma is a semi-rare, solid tumor children’s cancer. Fritz's is Stage 4, as it has metastasized, and can be found through his body in his bones, bone marrow, and lymph nodes.

This all began at the end of October 2024, with some complaints about neck pain upon waking up. In mid November the neck pain was superseded by leg pain and a limp. Fritz stopped wanting to bend over, use stairs, or play. It seemed mostly controllable with OTC medication but some days it wasn't. We had several doctor’s appointments trying to understand what was going on. A leg x-ray in mid-November revealed nothing. It was suspected to be something rheumatological, maybe an infection of the spine. Bloodwork in early December was inconclusive, and we remained hopeful that it was something easily managed. Meanwhile Fritz continued to get worse and worse and worse. More procedures and more bloodwork, all falling around the holidays and his fourth birthday, until our lives were forever changed. Cancer. Rare, high risk, metastatic cancer.

By best estimates, the neuroblastoma rampaged through his body to the point of metastases within 8 weeks. This cancer moves fast.

We already knew this Christmas would be hard, as our family lost Fritz’s maternal grandmother after a three-year battle with metastatic breast cancer in June 2024. Christmas Day marked exactly six months since her passing.

Fritz has already gone through countless MRIs, X-rays, a CT scan, a surgery to place a central line and an nasogastric tube placement procedure. No one should have to endure all of these procedures and indignities, especially a child just a few days into being four.

Fritz is being treated at Randall's Children's Hospital in Portland and started his first round of chemotherapy the week of December 30th, where he endured a round of chemo every day for 5 days straight.

We expect this to consume at least 18 months of our lives, if not longer. In a perfect world, we'll wrap up the main treatment the summer before Fritz is due to start kindergarten.

For those that don't know Fritz well, prior to all of this, Fritz had just started preschool. He is an incredibly bright child with a steel-trap memory. Fritz loves to read, a bond he shared with his Grandma Janis, a bookworm all her life. He loves equipment of all kinds and holds an extra soft spot for gator rides with his maternal grandpa. He loves to talk about his “works” which generally consist of the sawmills that can be found driving down Highway 99 in Eugene. His favorite color is purple and he loves to run experiments, especially ones that consist of bossing his little sister around, who's just happy to be included and is forever his faithful lackey.

Fritz lives in Harrisburg with his mom, dad, little sister Teddy, a dog and two cats. As I write this on January 13th, since he started treatment two weeks prior, he's only been home for a scant 24 hours, which ended on the evening of Monday January 6th with an emergency trip back to Randall's due to a fever and low white blood cell counts.

We are asking for assistance, with no expectations, to help us afford the countless costs ahead while we try to cure Fritz of this awful disease. His dad, Lewis, has been his preferred parent in all of this, and Lewis has stood by his side with endless love and patience. Lewis is also our only source of income, and health insurance, and has been on a leave of absence since December 18th. We live in a country that is amazing for a lot of reasons, but our healthcare + insurance system is not one of them.

We face high deductibles, too few days of leave for Lewis (which will inevitably run out), and the high potential that our insurance company will start denying us coverage as we become more expensive to insure.

We know that everyday life has become increasingly expensive; we have no expectations and are grateful for any and all contributions. Please know that all contributions - no matter the amount - will go directly toward covering his medical expenses and the countless additional costs that arise during this fight.

We are endlessly grateful for everyone's support in all its forms. They say raising a child takes a village, it turns out facing cancer with your child makes that statement even more true. We couldn't do this without any of you.

With love and gratitude,

Taylor (Fritz’s mom), Lewis, Fritz and Teddy