Shep Statements

It’s been an unprecedented few months in the Shepard house! Early February, we found a marble-sized lump on the side of Sylis’s head… After an ultrasound, CT scan, MRI, full body X-rays, PET scan, 2 surgeries (mass removal and chemo port implantation) and more hospital gowns than we care to count… Sylis was finally diagnosed with Langerhan’s cell histiocytosis: a rare, cancer-like disease that causes masses in various parts of the body.  

Sy completed his first 6-week round of chemo in early May - repeat scans showed that some of his lesions have responded well to treatment, while others are still active. In early July, he will complete his second 6-week round of chemo, followed again by another set of scans to see how he’s responding. This will be a repeating cycle for him until all of his lesions are gone, at which point, he’ll go into maintenance treatment for a year, receiving chemo just once every 3 weeks.

While this has certainly been a challenging time and diagnosis for us all, we are blessed to be in the best hands there are for this at the Dana Farber Jimmy Fund Clinic. We are beyond grateful for the support we’ve received from family, friends, coworkers, the community, and all our medical teams to this point.