The Rednour Family - Rowen’s Cancer Journey

Update September 2024-

Rowen is 2 days away from finishing his 30 rounds of proton radiation. He has done incredibly well. He has had some intense rashes and allergies to many things including the chemo drug he was supposed to receive during the radiation. He had 2 anaphylactic reactions causing them to choose not to use this chemo drug during the radiation. He will get a small break after his radiation to heal and get his counts back up before we begin the 48 weeks of chemotherapy. He has had continuous low white blood counts, causing his ability to fight infection to be weak. At one point he was teetering on the immune compromised border. As of right now we have an appointment on Oct. 4th for our follow up MRI. We are hopeful his scan will be clear. He will also have his kidney function test on Oct. 7th. We will anticipate Chemotherapy to begin shortly after. We have opted to homeschool all of the children at this point due to our living situation and Rowens counts being low, we don’t want to risk bringing school germs home to him. Travis and I are extremely grateful for all that have donated. Not being able to work for the last 8 weeks has been very very difficult, but with one of us in treatments and the other with the children it’s been impossible. Thank you all for helping us stay afloat during this difficult time. We are still taking the days hour by hour. It’s still incredibly hard to process, but we are forever Rowen Strong

Update #2-

As some of you may have noticed, I have increased the fundraiser goal as needs have changed with Rowen’s official diagnosis. Although early tests are still being done to determine course of treatment, it is known that Rowen and family will need to stay in Boston for the foreseeable future to be closer to Dana Farber. Unfortunately there have been some limitations to utilizing known housing resources, including Rowen needing to be inpatient and the size of their family (two adults, five kiddos). They have applied to several short term housing options in hopes to provide some stability for the family soon.

We have appreciated every share, every dollar and every prayer thus far. Please consider spreading the word to continue this support. Thank you all so much and we will continue to update!

UPDATE from Emily -

We have a diagnosis and so many questions still unanswered.

What I can share- Rowen had surgery to remove a 3cm x 3cm mass removed from his brain located in the fourth ventricle. This mass was causing a buildup of cerebral fluid, which was then not draining properly causing a buildup in the brain. Rowen was not suffering from any impairments from this other than nausea and vomiting and headache. This made it very difficult to advocate for an MRI. I’m so glad I did. This surgery came with a lot of risks such as loss of speech, loss of ability to walk, vision, and of course the risk of not being able to remove it all. We can share that Rowen came out of surgery with zero impairments, and we are absolutely blessed to share that they were able to remove the tumor in full. ( I owe my soul to Dr. Edward Smith at Boston children’s)

Pathology has shared with us today that it was cancerous….Medulloblastoma to be exact . We will meet with the cancer center on Friday for more answers along with a lumbar puncture, bone marrow test, and port put in next week for him. What we do know is that we are not treating anything at this time, we are just preventing further growth. (Again, we know we are truly blessed but it’s still really heavy ) Travis and I will meet with the cancer center Friday to also determine the treatment path we need to take, which could also come with long term side effects.

At this time, we are looking for some sort of housing here in the Boston area while we navigate these appointments weekly and his treatment. Although the cancer center was super grateful we were still in town when she called today ( easier to get treatment going) it has been very expensive along with juggling our normal expenses. (If anyone has any information on housing, air bnbs, hotels, apartments etc. please feel free to share) We are so thankful for our friends and family that have helped us navigate in this difficult time. You have all been a godsend to us.

Please continue to pray for our boy as we continue this difficult journey.

Hi everyone,

I am sharing this on behalf of my sister and her beautiful family. As many of you now know, my nephew Rowen started to feel ill last Saturday at his 4th birthday party. My sister, Emily, took him to multiple doctors over the course of the next several days, advocating that something was wrong. On Wednesday, Rowen finally had an MRI that discovered a mass on his brain. He was subsequently transported the same night to Portland, and then Boston Children’s Hospital. Less than 24 hours later, he was undergoing brain surgery to remove the mass. There are still a lot of unknowns of his condition and prognosis moving forward, but we do know my sister and her family will need to remain in Boston the next few weeks along with their other four children. As business owners, this presents as a financial challenge on top of the immense stress of navigating their son’s health condition. I’m sharing just in hopes to ease that burden even slightly. If unable to support, please consider sharing or saying a prayer instead. Thank you