Isaac just recently celebrated his first birthday and is as happy as can be. He is a little boy who is always smiling and laughing. His mother, Candise, says his name means "he laughs," which suits him perfectly. He loves cars, food and exploring. He also enjoys music and his family thinks he will be a future drummer!

When Isaac was about a month old his family was out to breakfast, and when his mother went to get him from his car seat, she noticed he didn't seem quite right. He was struggling to breathe and was drenched in sweat. She decided to take him to the base hospital (because his father is active duty military) which was about 10 minutes away. When they got there he was put on oxygen and his status improved. They did some bloodwork and a chest X-ray at the ER while awaiting transport to the local children's hospital. While waiting for transport, his blood work came back positive for RSV. So his mother expected to stay in the hospital until he was done fighting his RSV. However the chest X-ray showed something else not quite right.

At the children’s hospital, a CT scan the next morning showed a massive tumor in his chest. They did not know exactly what it was and decided to try to do a surgery to remove it. The surgery was unsuccessful because the tumor ruptured, and Isaac almost bled to death on the table. However they were able to get enough to send to pathology which confirmed a diagnosis of stage three neuroblastoma. Isaac then spent 2.5 weeks post-surgery in the PICU.

Isaac had two surgeries and four rounds of chemotherapy. He now has routine scans and will be coming up on a year chemo-free in June 2015. Even now, he is the happiest, bubbliest baby you will ever meet. His family believes that it is amazing that he is so full of life considering how close he came to losing his own.

Information provided by Candise Schaefer, proud Mommy
April 2015