IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Ferris family never expected a vacation to change their lives. But it was during a spring break stay at a Florida beach when their youngest son, Hudson, began to complain of strange pain and fatigue.
“When we get back, we are figuring this out,” his mother, Traci, remembers thinking at the time, which was around Hudson’s ninth birthday. Up to that point, Traci said Hudson had been a very healthy child.
Multiple trips to Hudson’s local pediatrician’s office for blood work and other tests did not reveal a cause for what ailed him. “They kept thinking it was growing pains,” Traci says. “He was kind of at that age when kids grow a lot. They were stumped.”
Hudson’s father, Derrick, said it was several months before they were referred to University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital after a scan showed a mass on Hudson’s chest, which turned out to be a 6-centimeter tumor on his vertebrae. At Stead Family Children’s Hospital, Hudson was diagnosed with stage IV high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer that had spread through his body.
“It was unbelievable how much cancer was in his body,” Traci recalls, noting they felt overwhelmed to hear he had stage IV high-risk neuroblastoma — typically associated with much younger patients — with plans for 18 months of treatment. “We soon realized this would be the longest 18 months of our lives.
“We will never forget Dr. (Mariko) Sato, his oncologist at the time, telling us, ‘He can beat this, but it’s going to be a tough fight,’” she says. “We had no idea how tough of a fight this would be.”
Read Hudson’s story here.