Andon Mitchell updates

We will be putting any updates sent to us regarding Andon Mitchell's progress in his cancer treatment journey.  Check in here to keep updated.  

Andon’s journey with osteosarcoma

 

 

It began with this mysterious pain in Andon’s right leg. He was 16 years old. He had been in a car accident and was hit on the right side, so we were going to doctor, chiropractors, physical therapists, energy workers, etc. to help us find what was going on.

 

The chiropractor and the MD were confident that Andon’s leg pain was being caused by his lower discs in his back. Their solution was surgery to remove his swollen discs in his back. 

 

Andon’s right femur began to swell and was so sensitive to touch. He dropped our of school because he could no longer sit. He commented in September of 2020 that he felt like his femur was broken. We asked the doctors about it and they suggested more physical therapy, back compressions, and surgery.

 

 

At Thanksgiving 2020 Andon asked Aunt Angie Mayer, a nurse practitioner, to take a look. She saw the swelling and immediately recommended seeing an orthopedic surgeon and getting an X-ray. She made some calls and got us an appointment with Michael Anderson.

 

Dr. Anderson took an x-ray of Andon’s leg right away. This was something no one had done up to this point. The pain in his leg was making it so he could barely walk.

 

 

Early December 2020 the MRI confirmed the tumor and the femur bone separating. The cancer really was bursting his bone from the inside. Dr. Anderson sent us to Primary Children’s Hospital where Dr. Douglas Fair would get us a biopsy and that confirmed the osteosarcoma, bone cancer. 

 

We were thrown into an overview of what treatment looked like for Andon. 6 rounds of the harshest chemo and to surgically remove the cancer, Andon’s femur that had been affected and much of the muscle around his bone. 

 

Each round of chemo was an entire week of hell at the hospital.  The cancer in Andon’s body would send Andon into screams of pain so horrifying for us all. We started chemo in order to kill the cancer.

 

AS the fire of the cancer was dying the new pain was now on the rise… from Andon’s body being damaged from the chemo.  The nausea, the hair loss, the stomach cramping, the gross taste of metals in food and water, the weakness, and next to no energy at all. 

 

Andon walked with death. The color left his face. It was a trade off of one pain- cancer- to another- death. After several rounds of chemo the 13.5 hour surgery was performed in March of 2021 by Dr. Jones.

 

They stripped the cancer away, 3/4 of Andon’s femur bone, and 2 of the 4 muscles in his thigh. They replaced it with a cadaver bone and metal plates on each side with screws into his knee and hip to hold it all in place. 

 

For the next several months Andon would be lifted and carried to the bathroom, set in the shower chair, and basically spoon fed for all his needs. Here entered the third type of physical pain… surgery and removal of a large part of his leg. He had no energy, no color, no appetite, no independence, no immune system, and very little will to live.

 

He struggled emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. He felt ugly and weak. He depended on his family to meed all his needs. 

 

Andon was a total athlete- swimmer, skate boarder, snow boarder, ball player, and anything outdoors.  None of these loves of his were available to him. We pushed him in a wheelchair and held his hand through the tears, loss, and changes.

 

Andon finished his rounds of chemo and was declared cancer free August 20, 2021.

 

With a lot of dedication and hard work with the physical therapist, Andon learned to walk again with a walker and then with a cane. 

 

Life started coming back to him. He worked through lots of emotional trauma and chose to get back into the world and play with family and friends. His hair grew back. With a cane he stood on the volleyball court and would play as best as he could.

 

Andon was putting a new life together one piece at a time. Every 3 months he would go back in for scans. In July of 2022 Andon’s scans showed growths in his right lung. Mom burst into sobs in the middle of the doctors visit- could it really be back???

 

The doctors told us that with osteosarcoma- they were sure they could heal it. With it returning and in his lungs they said it was a 50/50 chance and it was filled with guess work to see if the cancer would respond to the next strand of chemo. If it comes a third time it is fatal. 

 

The protocol was similar, chemo and surgery.

 

Andon wasn’t sure if he was up for another fight. He asked the doctors what would happen if he didn’t do those things. They told him his lungs would fill with the bone cancer which is like coral reef until he could no longer breath.

 

Andon went on a should teaching journey to consider all that was placed at his feet.  Was there another way? Was this how he would save his own life? He asked  “mom, how will I  know when to stop fighting?” To which I  responded “only you will know that answer.” And then fell into my own tears of holding my boy through this intense experience.

 

In August of 2022, Andon chose into chemo once again. But this time he was looking for other possibilities, other ways to heal, other solutions that could truly heal his body and keep him well.

 

He met with lots of people and doctors and online searches to find different pieces of the puzzle that were helping others through their cancer journeys.

 

He implemented thousands of dollars worth of supplements, herbs, homeopathies, nutrition, cleanses, and natural remedies to help keep his body strong.

 

The first 2 rounds of chemo kicked Andon on his butt. He was on 8-10 medication and was completely out of it during the week long stays at the hospital. He was pretty sick. Once Andon started implementing these other pieces he noticed his energy coming back, his color was there, his numbers from labs were better than they had ever been, and he was on 1-2 meds during chemo!

 

All these things he was committing to daily were blessing his body and the cancer nodes had stopped growing. It was working!

 

Andon met with Dr. J’nette Miller who had been helping him build his body during this process. She studied lots of successful cancer survivors and took their big hitters and put them in front of Andon.

 

She also told him of a hope4cancer center that uses natural methods to kill the cancer, heal the body, and educate about all of it. They treat the whole body, emotional and spiritual being a large part of that whole body healing. They go after the reason cancer showed up in the first place and heal that wound- not just putting on a bandaid.

 

Andon felt a huge pull to this process and reached out to them. They looked over all his charts, history, scans, and health journey and said he qualifies to be a part of their clinic.

 

It starts with a 3 week intensive program where Andon lives on-site with them participating in daily processes. He will be educated on all the parts that play a role. They will be searching his body for circulating cancer cells that escape the scans radar. They will be rebuilding all the damage from the chemo. They will be introducing nutrition and how to get the most benefit from what we are eating. They will be cleansing his blood, adding ozone and light therapy to his cells.

 

This program is a year long. 3 weeks of living with them and then they send him home with the machines and education to continue the work. He goes back to the center 2 more times during the year to get checked and make sure he is on schedule for being cleared of the original threat. 

 

The cost for the Mexico cancer center is $46,000.

 

We have been so blessed throughout this entire journey and have so many lessons and miracles in our world- and we feel like this cancer center is what we have been searching for! Please help us create this miracle for Andon!  

 - Kami Mitchell