This is Sam OUR HERO a 7 year old FIGHTER! We created this website to share Sam's story and inspire everyone who reads this with his remarkable strength and will to beat
this relentless disease...
NEUROBLASTOMA CHILDHOOD CANCER!
He is not alone in his fight. We couldn't do it without the support from family, friends, and friends we have never met in person. We are so THANKFUL for the love, prayers, and hope we receive each day! Please read Sam's story... see how far he has come and see why he is IRONMAN SAM.
Read current updates about Sam
and leave him a message at
www.carepages.com login SAMFLEMING.
Sam’s Story
Sam is a 7 year old boy who goes to school, loves to play with his friends, rides his scooter, plays baseball, is into Legos and is a master WII gamer. He also is fighting for his life everyday against a vicious beast in his body, Neuroblastoma cancer. It’s a cancer that isn’t genetic, isn’t self prevented, and has no boundaries. It’s very rare and is known as the great masquerader. It usually presents itself as common childhood symptoms and by the time it is diagnosed it spreads throughout the body and is extremely hard to cure. It did just this in Sam. He was 4 years old in preschool and on the soccer team. He didn’t have the stamina he had in his t-ball games just a short time before. His legs hurt and after multiple visits to doctors and the emergency room it was finally diagnosed. He immediately started high dose chemo at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth. After several rounds of chemo, the grapefruit size tumor he had in his abdomen had shrunk enough to attempt surgery. After a 20 hour resection at Texas Children’s in Houston, the surgeon was able to remove the tumor. Cancer still remains in his bones and bone marrow. Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC gave us the most hope to continue treatments that could save his life as they treat most cases of Neuroblastoma in the world. After 10 rounds of chemo, 28 days of direct radiation, an experimental phase 1 trial which caused his body to be radioactive, and 20 plus rounds of a monoclonal antibody, Sam’s cancer remains stable. The drugs that are available and used for pediatric patients are devastating on the body and Sam has suffered many side effects. He has had to have 3 additional major operations to repair and reconstruct his GI tract. This doesn’t count the port placement into his main artery 3 different times, a catheter in his neck to collect stem cells, and over 20 bone marrow aspiration procedures. During this time he has been completely dependent upon blood and platelet transfusions several times a week, he has lost his hair, lost some of his hearing, lost muscle tone and weight. In order for him to get adequate nutrition Sam is hooked up nightly to an IV bag of nutrients. His “normal” routine consists of getting unhooked from the IV and taking up to 20 pills a day. He gets 2-3 weeks of school, baseball, swimming, playing with friends before having to fly to NY for 1-2 weeks of treatments and scans. Sam ‘s current treatment is an experimental antibody treatment. Each day of the week he is injected with a mouse derived antibody in hopes that it will cause his body to produce an antibody to kill the neuroblastma. The treatments are very painful and he is given high doses of pain medicine and antihistamines to control respiratory distress. He has endured over 20 months of this treatment and it has kept the cancer stable.
Throughout all his treatment Sam has been remarkably resilient. Even on the hardest days he has the best attitude and strives to get the most play time in. He supports his friends who also fight the cancer battle, many of whom we have watched relapse, and some pass away. Sam’s true hero nature has inspired many to tell his story in the media, hold fund raisers, run marathons, and even dedicate the Ironman to him. He has the will, the strength, and the perseverance to beat this. We need to find the right drugs, the right treatment, the cure.
Click on the LINK page for more information about Neuroblastoma research, Sam's hospital & treament, BAND OF PARENTS, and COOKIES FOR KIDS CANCER.
