Meet Addison!
Addison is one amazing and beautiful 15 year old with a contagious smile. After over 8 months of misdiagnosis from multiple doctors at different hospitals, her family finally found a tumor in her abdomen which led to an emergency room visit on April 21, 2024, at the hospital in Detroit Lakes. She immediately was transferred to Sanford in Fargo and had a biopsy done, which was sent to Mayo in Rochester. She and her family traveled to Mayo for a second opinion and were told she had stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Addison immediately began her cancer journey with surgery for a port placement and underwent an oophorectomy as well. Her first round of chemo began immediately, where she started with five rounds and underwent another set of scans to see how well she responded. The goal was to get her ready for surgery, but at this point she found out that she was unresponsive to the chemotherapy and her family was sent home.
Her family reached out to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, who is the leading research hospital for neuroblastoma in the country. Addison started immunotherapy mixed with low dose chemotherapy to which she finally responded. At this point, she was finally ready for surgery.
Right before Thanksgiving, Addison endured a 15.5 hour recession surgery with three surgeons. This surgery was labeled and documented as the most challenging procedure for all 3 surgeons. After surgery, she went through more rounds of immunotherapy and in February started proton beam radiation for six weeks, equating to about thirty rounds of radiation aimed at multiple points of her body.
Since radiation, she has received more rounds of immunotherapy mixed with Accutane. Addison will continue that until August, at which point she should be done with treatment so long as she doesn’t relapse. During her treatment, Addison has picked up on a new passion – acoustic guitar. We hope her love of music and art will bring her joy on this difficult journey. Please keep Addison and her family in your prayers.