Danny throws out first pitch
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This is an update on my blog about Margate boy Danny Feltwell from last week.  I wanted to share the precious photos of father and son at the Phillies game and Dan Feltwell's description of the long, hard week father and son experience when Danny is receiving his treatment.

Danny Feltwell might be too young... to appreciate what a special moment he’ll be part of this Sunday afternoon when he throws out the first pitch before the Phillies game at Citizen’s Bank Park.  After all,  Danny is only three, and being selected to throw that ceremonial pitch before a major league game is a real honor.  But… Danny is not just any three-year-old.

Since being diagnosed with a form of childhood cancer when he was two, Danny has experienced many things much older people never have and endured more pain and upheaval in his young life than they hopefully ever will.

This is an update in an occasional series of blogs about Danny and his single father Dan, a small but determined family doing whatever they can to get Danny better.  Along the way, they have found that a cancer diagnosis is especially unfair for a child.

It’s not just that cancer at a young age deprives Danny of the worry-free childhood any parent would wish for their child.  The compounding problem is the inadequacy of available treatments for children with cancer.  What treatments are being offered were designed for an adult’s body, not a child’s.  There are also shortages of the drugs needed to give Danny a fighting chance that you don’t encounter with the treatment of  cancer in an adult.

Anyway,  here’s wishing Danny and his family a  happy time they will long remember at Sunday’s Phillies game.  If you are at the game, you’ll have the chance to witness a moment when the smallest person on the field has the greatest courage.

Here is my latest update on Danny’s medical condition from his father.

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Hi Eddie,
Yesterday Danny Received Chemotherapy, Vincristine, and he also had an infusion of IVIG which is the antibodies of White Blood Cells. We also had an x-ray that showed his bowles were blocked. This was caused by his Chemotherapy and part of Autonomic Neuropathy or his involuntary muscle movements, contractions of his intestinal tract are week. This is the same reason his digestion is very slow or dis-motility. Danny was cleaned out and felt much better almost immediately. Today Danny had a Spinal Tap with Intrathecal Methotrexate (Preservative Free Methotrexate). This Spinal Tap is done as a surgical procedure and Danny has to go under anesthesia, after having over 30 Spinal Taps over the last 19 months it still is hard for me to watch him be put to sleep, this is when I feel the most helpless. Our last 2 days have been quite long with the 2 hours of diving each way and long days at AI duPont I am pretty tired. Wed. was a 13 hour day and today, Thurs, was an almost 15 hour day. When I brought Danny home tonight he was a little beat up, he is feeling the side effects of these very strong Chemotherapeutic Drugs and slept the whole way home in the car then I put him right in bed. I like to say he is having a not so good moment in our good days because no matter what all of our days are good.

Thank you very much for your writing about Danny. I feel that by sharing Danny`s Journey we can bring Awareness toward Childhood Cancer or that Danny may touch the right person then things could change for the better, for all Children diagnosed with Cancer.

Again Thank you very much.

Your Friend,

Dan Feltwell

 

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