Aiden's battle is becoming intense...

Here is Aiden's story and the latest update from his CaringBridge Page:

Aiden's Story

Aiden's journey began in late August when his parents noticed a hard lump on his stomach. They decided to have it checked out by Aiden's pediatrician. An initial scan done by Aiden's doctor showed a large mass in Aiden's abdomen. Aiden was immediately sent to Nationwide Children's Hospital for further testing.

On August 27, 2012, Aiden was diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma. In addition to the tumors found in his abdomen, the doctors found lesions, during a cat scan, on the outside of several bones surrounding his abdomen. However, Aiden's bone marrow came out clean-so doctors will be able to remove bone marrow and harvest it so that Aiden can have his own new, healthy bone marrow injected into his system after treatment.

After the initial diagnosis, additional bone scans were needed to find out if the cancer had traveled to any other parts of Aiden's body. On August 30th, Aiden's bone scans came back clean! The previous lesions found in the initial cat scan had not shown up!

Shortly after Aiden's diagnosis and bone scans, a treatment plan was established and Aiden's chemo treatment started on September 2nd. The treatment schedule will be long and aggressive. However, with all the love, support and prayers offered by family and friends we can help Aiden and the rest of the Welling family through this trying time.

Latest update:

Thank you everyone for the birthday messages and kind words. It is not good news. The tumors have grown and multiplied. Our normally optimistic oncologist was not able to be very reassuring today. We will wait to hear what the doctor in Cincinnati has to say about MIBG therapy. We know these r not the best circumstances for that therapy, but we r running out of options.

Aiden has continued to have pain and nausea. He is starting to complain of pain in his chest as well as in his back and his side. He is on several different types of pain medication and is taking it regularly. He has also been very tired and has been taking naps several hours per day; although he does perk up and play for periods of time too.

We have not heard anything from the doctor in Cincinnati.

I have decided to take some time off work to spend time with Aiden and help Brian with his care. We have decided to take the boys on a get away so we can spend some time together as a family away from our reality. Our boys do not know the gravity of our situation, and we are not ready to share it with them. We are going to go to Orlando, and have medical contacts there who can help with Aiden's care.