About Wyatt's Rides

Wyatt was born on November 20, 2015.  Greg and I (Christy) were in our 40's, and Wyatt was both a surprise and a blessing from GOD. 

On December 2, 2018, we took Wyatt to Children's Hospital because we thought he had a stomach virus that he couldn't shake.  At Children's, they did blood work and s stomach x-ray; everything came back normal.  We were about to be discharged when the doctor noticed Wyatt's right eye turn inward for just a second.  He asked if that has happened before, and we said no.  The doctor then asked if we would stay the night for observation, and of course we agreed.

Later that night, while Wyatt and I were watching cartoons, I noticed that is right eye had again turned inward.  Greg alerted the doctors and they immediately sent us for a CTscan of his brain.  It showed a mass the size of a golf ball on his brain stem.  The next morning, December 3, Wyatt had a two-hour MRI.  It revealed a tu more on his brainstem and cancer along his spine.

Early the morning, Wyatt had a six-hour brain surgery to remove the tumor on his brain stem.  He went to Pediatris ICU.  The doctors placed a shunt the following week to regulate the. pressure on his brain.  this procedure made his brain "angry".  His body started dumping sodium, which led to seizures and the need for a ventilator.  One week later, when he was stable enough, they had to start chemotherapy.

It was a heart-wrenching decision for us as parents; however, we had no choice but to allow them to give him this poison, hoping to save our baby.  The nurses administered chemo in protective gear, and we were told to avoid getting any of Wyatt's body fluids on us...including his tears.  (We didn't listen, he was our baby.)  After the first does of chemo, his shunt stopped up, and on Christmas Eve, he had emergency surgery to revise his shunt.  We spent most of the first six weeks in PICU.

Wyatt had five rounds of harsh chemo.  After the second round, they harvested his stem cells to use later in a stem cell transplant.  After the chemo, an MRI showed that the cancer in his brain was gone!  The cancer in his spine was so small it  might have even been scar tissue.  We thought we had won!

The next step was the stem cell transplant, but within just three short weeks, before the transplant was even begun, we noticed Wyatt's eyes were again not acting right.  Another MRI showed that the cancer was back.  Our oncologist decided on a different chemo regimen that might beat the cancer, so Wyatt went through two more rounds of difficult chemo.  An MRI showed that although the cancer was not completely gone, it was stable enough to start the stem cell transplant.

On August 14, Wyatt's stem cell treatment began, and he received extremely harsh chemo for six days.  On August 23, he received his stem cells that had been harvested earlier in the year.  During this, he developed mucositis  that required a few days on the ventilator in PICU.  An MRI showed brain swelling and new cancer growth, but Wyatt proved to everyone that he was a fighter. 

On September 10, he was discharged form Children's.  The doctors told us that the only thing left that may stop the cancer was radiation, but the side effects were terrible, and they worried that he might not survive the treatment.  However, on November 11, Wyatt completed a 28-day cycle of high dose radiation and again proved to everyone just how strong he was.  

On December 16, we had a follow-up MRI.  We had hopes that the radiation had killed the cancer, but the results we had prayed for were not the results we received.  The old cancer appeared to be dormant, but the new cancer was growing in his brain.

We couldn't give up.  We were fighting for our Wyatt.  On January 6, we went to St.Jude's in Memphis.  They did a CT scan of Wyatt's brain to check his shunt, and it showed that his brain had severe swelling.  He was immediately admitted to the ICU and scheduled for and MRI later that evening.  The MRI showed that the tumor had taken over his brain.  There was nothing more that could be done to save our sweet little boy, so on January 7, we left St. Jude's via ambulance to take Wyatt to his favorite place - home.  We were surprised by the outpouring of love and support from our small hometown; they escorted Wyatt home in style.

We spent the next 10 days doing what we had done for the past 14 months - never leaving Wyatt's side.  On January 16 2020, at 7:17 pm, Wyatt passed away in our arms.

We created "Wyatt's Rides," a nonprofit 501c3 organization, to help other families financially that have children battling childhood cancer.  Out goal is to help others by paying a couple months of their house or car payment, buying gas for trips to and from the hospital, or even providing a gift card to a place close to the hospital for a decent meal.  Those small things helped us so much.

We lost our precious son, Wyatt, to medulloblastoma brain cancer at the age of 4.  For a little over a year, we spent the majority of our time at Children's Hospital of Alabama.  We were unable to work because Wyatt was so sick.  If it hadn't been for the generosity of other people and nonprofit organizations, we would have lost everything, including our home.  Someone even paid out power bill for a year.  We still don't know who.

We now feel the strong desire to "pay it forward."  Unless you have been where we have, it's hard to understand the devastation that you feel as a parent.

Any help that anyone can give will be greatly appreciated and used to help families in similar situations.

Thank you and God Bless,

Greg and Christy Spann