We miss you COLIE!

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of Cole Regans passing. He was such an amazing little boy and I am so grateful that I had the pleasure of meeting him. I have also become really good friends with his mommy, Brandy and I'm glad that we'll be able to spend this evening with her.

Here is his story:

Cole Regan was October 22, 2002 at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. An hour after Cole was born he started to grunt which concerned Doctors. Cole was then transferred over to the Special Care Unit where they kept a much closer eye on him. After many tests including two spinal taps Cole was treated for Sepsis, a blood infection. Starting the first day of Cole’s life he was put on a 10-day antibiotic treatment, which of course was very traumatic, however they had no idea what was waiting just a short time later.On December 20th Keith and Brandy, Cole’s parents, called their pediatrician because Cole had two low grade fevers in one day. After some hesitation from the nurse, Brandy finally decided to take Cole in. Arriving no more than 20 minutes later the tests began. They went into the pediatrician’s office expecting to hear Cole had the flu, instead an hour later they were told Cole had cancer. Cole was 7 weeks old when he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) M5 9/11 Chromosome.

On December 25, 2002 Cole was to start his first of five rounds of chemo. Cole’s type of Leukemia is considered an adult type, which meant his cancer was very aggressive and his treatment would be even twice as aggressive.

Cole had 75 plus procedures that would put him under anesthesia, including MRI’s, CAT Scans and bone marrow aspirates, 30 surgical procedures, dozens of blood and platelet transfusions, ARDS, fungus in his brain and spine and of course his drug addiction to Fentinol, a derivative of morphine. Caused by mucuositis; the rapid depletion of fast reproducing cells caused by chemo, and the rapid development of those cells would cause the membranes to grow abnormally and rupture in his mouth, throat, and stomach. This created a tremendous amount of pain for Cole. He was placed on pain meds for 7 months of his life.

In May of 2004, Keith and Brandy were told that Cole was suffering from hydrocephalous or water on the brain and required an Ommya Reservoir which would allow the excess fluid to collect until the brain could properly flush the rest. Keith and Brandy soon discovered that Cole appeared to have relapsed with Central Nervous System (CNS), this was the initial diagnosis. Cole received 5 more rounds of chemo in his port and soon after looked to be doing well. Weeks passed but the port was not capable of doing the job; Cole’s head was filling with fluid which was incredibly painful for him. He was in so much pain that he slept 21 hours a day and the 3 hours he was up, he cried.

A Neurosurgeon then put a shunt in Cole so that the fluid could pass into his body where the fluid would be absorbed and Cole would continue to live life like he always did, with a smile. Cole was doing well until one evening in the mid part of June, while eating ice cream, Cole was far off and distant and had drool running down his face. It was the 1st of 3 strokes he would suffer. That next day Keith and Brandy took Cole the hospital for the last time. Cole was hooked up to a monitor, which would warn Keith & Brandy when his breathing was lower then 2 breaths per minute.

After 7 weeks of surviving 3 strokes, Cole passed on July 28th, 2004 at 4:20am. Cole peacefully passed in his sleep with his parents next to his side.