Grant's Wish

I met Cassi in the summer of 2015 when she was hired at the same company I was working at. We both had 2 ½ year olds at the time and became quick friends bonding over motherhood and work.

Since the time I met Cassi, she and her husband AJ wanted to have another child and after several miscarriages in late 2015 and early 2016, their prayers were finally granted! Little Grant was born on January 25, 2017. The family was overjoyed with this beautiful baby boy, especially big sister Amerie!

Within the first two weeks of Grant’s life, he developed a staph infection. Four different antibiotics were prescribed over the course of the next several weeks and nothing seemed to work.

Cassi and AJ took their first of many drives down to Children’s Hospital on March 1, 2017. It turned out that Grant’s umbilical cord had gotten infected and his little body was having a hard time fighting it off.

After numerous tests and eight days in the hospital the doctors knew something was wrong but couldn’t figure out what exactly was causing this tiny human to be unable to fight off a simple infection.

By April of 2017 it was confirmed that Grant was born with a rare disease called Severe Congenital Neutropenia. In his case, a bone marrow transplant is vital for his recovery. Without it, he will continue to become severely ill with bacterial infections that can lead to life threatening complications and the scariest of all is that it is simply a waiting game of when he will develop leukemia. 

Given how young Grant was at the time and how aggressive the treatment will be, the doctors wanted to wait several months to do the transplant. He has seen many doctors during this time: a hematologist, dermatologist, infectious disease, pulmonologist, and bone marrow. All of which needed to sign off on the transplant before moving forward.

It has been a long year and half. Twelve trips to the hospital and over forty nights spent in the hospital. Through it all Grant has kept his sweet disposition. There is always the ever present fear that the next fever is not far behind or even worse … What takes him.

During this time, there have been many blessings along the way.  Most notably, the Henderson’s welcomed a third child to their brood, Lucas, born on July 29, 2018. He is a happy and healthy little guy and brings such joy to the family … Although Amerie is over the boys and wants a sister!!

Finally after a year and a half of waiting, the day of the transplant is almost here!! 

On October 23rd, Grant will begin the fight of his life and undergo his first round of chemotherapy with the transplant scheduled for early to mid-November. This is an extremely aggressive and lengthy procedure which will require him to remain hospitalized for nearly two months. The family is praying to be released just days before Christmas… Once he is released there will be up to 15 medications he will need on a daily basis and multiple transfusions each week for several months.

This journey will take both Cassi and AJ out of work for many weeks with limited income as they have exhausted their paid time off over the course of the year with multiple hospital stays for Grant and of course, the birth of Lucas.

This fund is being set up to help them cover their mortgage, car payments, mounting medical bills (past, present and future!) and countless other incidentals while they are out of work.

This is going to be an incredibly hard journey for the Henderson Family and I am praying we can relieve some of the financial burden so they can focus on those three special children and Grant’s recovery.

Please visit the Henderson CaringBridge page to follow along in their journey.

https://www.caringbridge.org/public/granthenderson