Update: Next Steps

After an overwhelming week full of appointments, consultative phone calls and exhaustive research amongst multiple hospitals, we feel confident that Caroline’s medical team has put together the best way to attack her relapse. Her Thursday PET scan detected additional spots of new disease, so we’ve all decided that the best course of action is to immediately start Caroline on two cycles of treatment for relapsed Neuroblastoma and then go from there.  

Here is what we know the coming weeks will look like:

April 19th: Echocardiogram, lab work and an appointment with Caroline’s oncology team

April 21st: Central line (port) placed in her chest for chemotherapy, antibody treatment, labs, etc., as well as a bone marrow biopsy to see if the disease has progressed to her marrow.

April (date TBD):  Admission for inpatient stay at Vanderbilt to start her first round of treatment, which will consist of 2 different chemotherapies that she did not receive during the standard treatment protocol, plus an antibody therapy that she's received before.

Cycle 1 will be about 1 week in the hospital, followed by 2 weeks at home to recover. While at home, Caroline will get daily shots to help boost her immune system and recover from the treatment; we hope she will be able to go to school some of the time between cycles.  Cycle 2 should start at the end of her 2 weeks at home.  After 2 full cycles (about 6 weeks from start), Vanderbilt will re-image Caroline to determine if there is any improvement at the disease sites.  If the treatment is working, additional chemotherapy cycles will continue...if not, her team will re-assess.

HUGE shoutout to our healthcare friends and family, near and far, who went WAY above and beyond for us in so many ways this past week - y’all know who you are and we truly could not be more grateful to you! 

We will continue to post all updates on this blog, and appreciate the love and support as we walk through this extremely difficult and scary time. Again.      

Thank you for the prayers,
The Lantz Family

PS: For those that have asked, once we get this treatment underway, we should have some news about #carolinestrong t-shirts. If you’d like to help in the meantime, here are a couple links:

American Red Cross Blood Donation

Caroline's Hospital Wishlist

Medical Expenses via GoFundMe

Family Meals via UberEats Gift Cards (sent to margaretlantz@gmail.com)

Caroline putting in her own PET scan contrast!