Caisyn comes home
Published 6:51 am Wednesday, December 2, 2020
3-year-old ‘doing great’ in his battle with cancer
Three-year-old Caisyn Fuson has been away from home for a long time, but he is back home in Bell County following an extended stay at a hospital in Cincinnati undergoing treatment for Neuroblastoma stage IV metastatic cancer.
Caisyn’s mother, Brittany Fuson, shared some details of Caisyn’s fight.
“He has been fighting 445 days,” she said. “He’s doing great, he’s almost four months cancer free. All he has left to do is two rounds of oral chemo that we will do at home and we will be completely done with treatment.”
Caisyn will go back in January for a scan to make sure he’s still cancer free.
“Then every three months he’ll have scans, because this cancer is so aggressive, they have to stay on top of it and make sure it’s gone for good,” Brittany said.
The family spent 352 nights at the Ronald McDonald House near Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, according to Brittany.
She said Caisyn endured seven rounds of chemotherapy, seven rounds of immunotherapy, a tumor resection, 12 rounds of radiation therapy and two bone marrow transplants. She said the type of cancer Caisyn has been fighting has been known to relapse.
“We’re hoping he never relapses, and he’ll be good forever,” she said.
The treatment was not easy on Caisyn.
“It was a very, very harsh treatment plan,” Brittany said. “He’s been through the ringer. At first, with the chemo he was so sick he didn’t eat…we would feed him through his feeding tube. He would either be sleeping, or he would be throwing up. The first bone marrow transplant we spent 70 some days in the hospital. The second one we didn’t stay as long, but he was much sicker. He slept a lot during those.”
The radiation treatments were easier, she said.
“It didn’t bother him a bit,” Brittany said. “He was almost back to his normal self. With immunotherapy, when he was in the hospital he had to be sedated because it causes so much pain. He would sleep during that week, but when he would get out of the hospital he would bounce back to his normal self. Each therapy has been so different in the way it’s taken a toll on his body. He’s doing really well right now.”
She explained the treatment has had some lasting impact on his body.
“He’s lost a lot of his hearing,” Brittany said. “Due to his hearing loss he’s got a speech impediment that we’re going to have to work on…he does have some minor kidney damage, too.”
Brittany said she appreciated the support that has been received from the community.
“We would love to thank our community and Caisyn’s prayer warriors,” she said. “It’s been amazing knowing people are praying for him and have come to love him.”
For more, visit the Caisyn’s Journey: Cais-Man Strong Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/caismanstrong.