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Nolan McCann was on vacation visiting his grandparents in Myrtle Beach, SC during diagnosis on 07/21/17. His family lives in suburb just in Connecticut and were over 1,000 miles from home when he was diagnosed. About two weeks prior to his diagnosis, his mom had started to notice minor bruises, and that Nolan started to slowly stop eating.  His mom called their pediatrician before our trip and we both seemed to think he was bruising because he was a 21 month old boy and he was eating very picky because he was a toddler and teething.  However, when they landed to see his grandparents, they said “Nolan looked terrible.” His mom says, “We called the doctor and brought him to a walk-in clinic in Myrtle Beach where he had petichiae. Then we were sent to the Emergency Room and his blood counts said it was clearly leukemia and we were immediately rushed on a two hour ambulance ride to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston where he spent 12 days in their oncology unit and was diagnosed with Pre. B. A. L. L.”

 

Nolan went from being a wild, happy child to overnight not eating and being very moody. His mom says, “To say the diagnosis was heart breaking is an understatement. My husband flew down from CT because he was working and we stayed at the Ronald McDonald house until Nolan could get on a Medical Transfer flight back to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center for further treatment. We love our doctors and our hospital. We love our clinic and our nurses. We feel very blessed to have the very best care in our own backyard for our son.”

 

Nolan’s mom is taking most of the year off from teaching to take care of Nolan. He turned two on September 30, 2017 and we had a wonderful party. He has been undergoing chemotherapy on a regular basis. After 30 days, Nolan had 0.00% residual disease and was declared in remission!

 

Nolan has three more years of chemotherapy and will complete his treatment on November 16, 2020. “We are so happy to have an end date in mind but it’s still a very long road for our family. God bless all of our little warriors.”