Thursday, April 25, 2013

JTSF Rockstar | Noah Mummert (April)



Noah is a pretty happy-go-lucky kid with lots of energy! He enjoys swimming, painting and playing video games. He also loves to cook and spend time with his brother, Ben, who is 16.

Besides a little acid reflux, Noah had been fairly healthy until shortly after potty training began. He was always constipated and complained of tummy pain! This continued after many doctor’s visits and a lot of MiraLAX.

One morning he woke up with a 102-degree fever and complaining of side pain. Noah was also and throwing up yellow bile. His pediatrician sent us to the emergency room where we waited many hours before they agreed to do a CT scan. Shortly after that we were rushed by ambulance to Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital where we told he had a mass on his left kidney that they suspected was a Wilms’ tumor. A biopsy the next day confirmed that the mass was a stage ruptured Wilms tumor.

Wilms’ tumor is a cancer of the kidneys that occurs most commonly in young children. The prognosis for Wilms' tumor is generally very good with the 5-year survival rate for patients around 90%. However, this prognosis depends highly on diagnosis, staging and treatment. 

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Noah’s treatment started about one week after his diagnosis. It started a blood transfusion and then transitioned 6 weeks of chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before surgery. He then had the tumor and his one kidney removed. This surgery was followed by one week of radiation and 5 more months of chemotherapy.

Noah was such a trooper through all of his treatment! Considering everything he has gone through at such a young age, he has been such a good kid and he is always positive and upbeat.

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As of May 2013, Noah will be two years cancer free and coming up on April 28th, it has been two years since Noah’s last chemo treatment!

“My dream is that we can move past this part of our life as much as we can and use what we have learned to help fight for the rest of the kids going through or who will go through these nasty diseases!” – Noah’s mom Kathy 




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Noah and his family are an inspiration! Wonderful people who made lemonade from the lemons they were given.

John A Ellis said...

Inspirational story! Keep positive, Noah! Congrats on beating cancer!