Alex & Kirsten’s Instagram Takeover

Hi Everyone. My name is Kirsten and this is my younger brother, Alex. I am thrilled to be taking over the CCRF instagram account for the next few days to share my brother's story. Alex was Diagnosed in October 2014, when he was 16 years old, with stage III Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. He went through six months of chemotherapy, and was declared no evidence of disease. He relapsed six weeks later with stage IV Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. This treatment required full body radiation, six plus months of chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant. He recently relapsed with Post transplant lymphoproliferative disease. He will continue a few more rounds of chemo. Join our journey during my #instatakeover this week! #GoGold

A photo posted by Children's Cancer Research (@childrenscancer) on Sep 13, 2016 at 7:48am PDT

The gift of life. This is Alex holding his bag of stem cells before they were administered through his hickman line. His donor cells were from an umbilical cord from Central America. The mother's decision to donate her child's umbilical cord, gave my brother another chance at life. I am completely grateful for her and other bone marrow donors around the world helping save peoples lives. #instatakeover

A photo posted by Children's Cancer Research (@childrenscancer) on Sep 14, 2016 at 7:40am PDT

Alex became very sick, shortly after his transplant day. This picture was almost thirty days post transplant. We were still waiting for his cells to engraft, he was over coming life threatening septic shock that had him in the ICU for a while, and was now battling a severe case of graft versus host disease in his gut (where your body attacks your new cells). I remember taking this photo of him, this was one of his worst days. For some reason I couldn't take my eyes off of him while he basked in the sunset. I had tears of fear to loose him, but knew his battle was going to be a silent one. This was the moment I truly understood unconditional love. #instatakeover

A photo posted by Children's Cancer Research (@childrenscancer) on Sep 15, 2016 at 8:03am PDT

After fifty plus days in isolation, my mom (pictured above) and I were able to bring Alex for a lap in the halls. He had finally engrafted his new cells. Unfortunately spending that much time in bed, Alex was unable to walk or get out of bed without assistance. He had to spend multiple weeks with physical therapy to work on his strength to learn to walk again. During this picture, we only made it one lap around before he felt sick, and wanted to go back to his room. #instatakeover

A photo posted by Children's Cancer Research (@childrenscancer) on Sep 16, 2016 at 7:23am PDT

This is Alex today, three hundred days post transplant. When Alex was not in the hospital for tune ups, fevers, viruses, he was able to spend his summer fishing. He continues to beat the odds of surviving graft versus host disease, and does not let anything stop him from enjoying his "normal" teenage life. Im a firm believer that his positive attitude and outlook on life is what has pulled him through the hard times. Because in the end, all we have is hope. #GoGold #instatakeover

A photo posted by Children's Cancer Research (@childrenscancer) on Sep 17, 2016 at 12:57pm PDT