Olin’s Cancer Diagnosis of Leukemia

The month of November ended for our family with back-to-back emergency room visits for our two-year-old son. Our whole family had been sick with a cold, but while the rest of us improved, our son's illness worsened. He began spiking persistent fevers that eventually stopped responding to fever-reducing medications, he stopped eating, and his breathing became labored. Our first trip to the emergency room, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and given a shot of high dose antibiotics before we were sent home.

His condition did not improve, which lead us to take him to a different hospital's emergency room two days later. There, the emergency room staff gave him a breathing treatment and ran some blood tests, where they determined that his red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells were critically low. The medical team informed us that we were looking at either a very rare viral illness that could cause pancytopenia, or the more likely diagnosis of leukemia. We were transferred via ambulance to the nearest Children's Hospital an hour-and-a-half from Enid Oklahoma, which was Oklahoma University Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City Downtown.

Our son was admitted to the hematology-oncology unit where he spent the next 11 days receiving three different types of IV antibiotics, 5 blood transfusions, 2 transfusions for platelets, and two separate bone marrow biopsies that ultimately gave us the diagnosis of B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. With a definitive diagnosis, our son had a medication port placed under the skin in his chest which he will have for the duration of his chemotherapy treatments. The standard treatment course typically lasts two-and-a-half years.

As one could imagine, our family's world has been turned upside down as we adjust to many changes that come with a life-threatening medical diagnosis. Although we try to take things one day at a time, we also must consider that Olin Sr. will be returning to his training for the Air Force in just a few short months, requiring him to move several times to different areas of the country over the next year. This will leave Heather at home full-time with our 6-year-old daughter, our son with cancer, and the addition of a newborn due in March 2024.

The combination of returning to training, the demanding schedule of an aggressive cancer treatment protocol, and the possibility of constant hospital visits and overnight stays, we ultimately decided to transfer our son's care back to Nebraska so we could be closer to family and friends. We believe this will provide more support and stability to our family during his cancer treatment.

This GoFundMe is being set up to assist in many different ways for our family. With the addition of a second cost of living expense under one income, along with the medical care for our son and travel expenses for Olin Sr. and other family members, we hope to supplement additional bills while Olin is away for his training. This will relieve some financial burden that we will encounter over the course of our son's treatment.