Tribute to Tanner Anderson

Tanner's story started on November 12, 2022 - he was complaining of stomach issues and a dull pain in his lower stomach below his waist. They thought it was a bug or something of the sort and encouraged him to drink more water to try to flush whatever it was out of his stomach.

By the end of that week, his right leg had swollen to 2x - 3x its normal size. They were worried he had a clot in his abdomen, so they went to the emergency room on the evening of 11/5. At the ER visit, she diagnosed him with an ankle sprain even though he didn't feel any pain in the ankle. They did x-rays and wrapped his ankle in a bandage and sent us home. The next day his leg swelling appeared to be coming down.

On 11/9 his leg swelling was back up and he was also complaining of pain during urination the ache in the abdomen felt more like a bruise, but he couldn't remember any injury to that area. Friday at noon they got a call from Children's Hospital and asked them to come in as soon as possible. At Children's, they did a CT and ultrasound. The ultrasound confirmed the spot and also another spot near the first one. It also showed thickening of the bladder wall (sometimes means cancer cells), along with most of the lymph nodes in the area being enlarged with one that is very large. The few scans that the CT picked up also showed enlarged lymph nodes on both sides of his chest. Tanner was diagnosed with a cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma. So, with all of those things combined, he started the fight of his life.

Tanner is only 15 years old. He has spent the last 9 months down at the Mayo clinic or Children’s Hospital. He has undergone weeks of Chemotherapy, Radiation and numerous tests. They received the news that there are no more treatments they can offer.

As a family, they’ve lost many hours of work and their medical bills are continuing to grow. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all for taking the time to read their story.