Keegan Thomas came into this world 6 weeks early. While it was quite the surprise we were so glad he was here and healthy, or so we thought. During a routine exam in the NICU doctors started to suspect something wasn't right. His head was VERY large for his age and he had some anomalies that just weren't normal. CT's and MRI's were ordered with nothing being found. 

We took our little bundle home from the hospital and started our new life as a family of three. It wasn't long before we started seeing specialist upon specialist with no real diagnosis ever being given. When Keegan was 6 months old his pediatrician noticed his head had grown and abnormal amount and order a CT. It was discovered that Keegan had hydrocephalus, which we were told from the beginning could happy with his head being as large as it was. 
He had a shunt placed in April of '10 and within a month was lifeflighted to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis Indiana, that was my first mothers day. Two days later our 7.5 month old son was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, the most common malignant central nervous system tumor of childhood. 

The rest of 2010 brough 6 rounds of high dose Chemotherapy and a Stem Cell Transplant and while 2011 started with hope for the future it would end with tragedy. His first MRI post Stem Cell Transplant came up beautifully! No disease progression and in fact it looked to be going away. Three months later, our news wasn't as good. He went in for surgery to remove a nodule on his spine....in my mind this was the begning of the end.

He started a new chemo regimen and even tried the 3f8 study in NYC but ultimately the cancer came back and worse than ever. He lost use of his legs late July of last year prompting us to try Proton Beam radiation. But in an almost 2 year old we had to seriously question our motives. In our first MRI post radiation to brain and spine, Keegan's oncologist told us there was "nothing more they could do" because the cancer was everywhere........

We took him home on Hospice given months to weeks. That was October 20, 2011. We squeezed in a wish trip to Give Kids the World and some quality time with family members. 

Keegan lost his battle in the wee hours of morning on December 6, 2011.

While Keegan is no longer here in person with us. He did what so many young fighters do. he brought people together for the better good. We call ourselves Team Keegan and we are keeping his fighting spirit alive by bringing news about childhood cancer to people that might not know. We are trying to bring smiles to fighters faces near and far and mostly trying to pay it forward.

I, his momma, feel so blessed that we had so much support both financially and in spirit that I want to give back. 

For Keegan's Third Birthday I wanted to honor him and his fight. I made a blog post over at www.karingforkeegan.blogspot.com mentioning PNF and all that Peach does. Immediately I had donations coming in, big and small. It was wonderful to see how much my son meant to so many people. So in honor of his fighting spirit we are paying it forward in attempt to help fighters put a smile on their face and just keep fighting!