Erik Ludwinski

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PLEASE PRAISE GOD FOR ERIK
AND PRAY FOR HEALING!

Isaiah 58:8
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

CLICK THE BARS below to expand or collapse the "extras"....

Click on photo for more art!

Please also pray for Anna, who is the same age as Erik
and has neuroblastoma as well.
She has been continuously treated for the past 6 years
her website is www.annabanana.org

Also, urgent prayers are needed for Will, Sam, Peter, Erin, Paige, Andrew, Dalton, Mary, and Amber Dugan (carepages) among many friends fighting neuroblastoma and other pediatric cancers.

And please pray for those parents trying to keep going without their little ones.
Sadly Lucas lost his battle Oct 16 last fall and Anna Meg March 28, Tyler April 9, Austin died April 24, and Emily lost her battle May 12, and Spencer died May 21, and Joe (26) lost his battle after first diagnosis at 9 years old in 1991, Janie died July 16th and Katie died Aug 1st, Max died Aug 30, and Arden died Aug 31.

see organizations raising money for neuroblastoma research and other pediatric cancers

and Magic Water

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Psalms 31:7
"I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul."


Click on photo below to see CNCF NB Handbook

Journal

Saturday, November 15, 2008 5:05 PM CST

BSU student defying the odds, keeps beating cancer
Bemidji Pioneer Press, by Bethany Wesley

Scientifically speaking, Erik Ludwinski should not be alive today.

Three times he has fought the same cancer. He twice has beaten it and is winning a third battle today.

“Even the doctors say it’s a miracle,” said Erik, 23, a Bemidji State University junior majoring in computer information systems.

Erik has Stage IV neuroblastoma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Diagnosed at age 6, he was cancer-free for 13 years before it returned in 2005 and then again in late 2006.

He was the first in the world in 2005 to undergo total marrow irradiation, in which every bone in his body was infused with high doses of radiation.

Erik was one of three patients who were highlighted at the University of Minnesota this month during a celebration in honor of 40 years of successful bone and marrow transplantation.

Today, his scans show that there is less than 1 percent of tumor growth in his bone marrow.

“You don’t choose cancer; cancer chooses you,” Erik said. “You can either ignore it … or accept it, and then life gets a whole lot easier.”

The first fight

Erik was 6 years old and living with his family in Massachusetts. He began to have sleepless nights as an unknown pain overtook his bones.

“We knew something was wrong,” he recalls.

Referrals from one doctor to another didn’t result in any immediate relief. It was two weeks before someone suggested that it might be cancer.

He ultimately was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer.

The following year was all but a blur:

9 rounds of chemo

5 surgeries

16 doses of radiation

1 bone marrow transplant

17 platelet transfusions

20 red blood cell transfusions

136-day hospital stay

70 days at the clinic

But it worked. The tests and scans came back clear. The cancer was gone.

The statistics still were frightening. Ninety-five percent of those diagnosed with neuroblastoma {at that time, with the same characteristics, would} die within the first five years. Of those who survive, some will relapse as late as seven years or develop other cancers such as leukemia or sarcoma.

But Erik’s cancer did not return.

Eventually, the family moved to Colorado and the regular check-ups were no longer necessary.

“Usually, once you get past those first couple of years, you don’t assume that it’s going to come back,” Erik said.

A second struggle

Erik’s father, Paul, eventually retired from the U.S. Air Force and the family relocated to Park Rapids.

Erik grew up and decided to attend college at North Dakota State University.

Toward the end of his second year in 2005, Erik went home to Park Rapids in May to surprise his, mother, Donna, for Mother’s Day. She immediately saw that he was pale, and he was complaining of hip and knee pain.

He returned to Fargo to finish a project. He didn’t make it to his finals.

The diagnosis on May 12 was startling: the neuroblastoma had returned.

Erik said it was so rare to have it return after so long that he didn’t even really consider it an option. Perhaps chronic fatigue. Maybe leukemia due to bone marrow transplant.

But not neuroblastoma.

“It was pretty shocking,” Erik said. “I didn’t feel anything the whole ride home.”

Erik, who had just gotten engaged and set a November wedding date, was now facing an uncertain future.

He endured more chemo, taking his final exams between doses. He took more drugs. No result.

While researching possible next steps, Donna found Dr. Michael R. Verneris at the University of Minnesota who was preparing for a revolutionary procedure.

Verneris, assistant professor of pediatric hematology/oncology and blood and marrow transplant, and his colleague Susanta Hui, a therapeutic radiation professor, were about to try total marrow irradiation. Using TMI, the bone marrow was removed from the body and high doses of radiation were focused on every bone in Ludwinski’s body before the bone marrow was replaced.

It was thought that if you could specifically target the bones and avoid organs such as the heart, you could utilize much higher doses of radiation.

Erik and his fiancée decided to get married and have a honeymoon. They went to St. Lucia, got married and spent one week celebrating.

The day after they returned, he went in to the University of Minnesota Medical Center for the procedure.

Erik was the first TMI patient worldwide.

“It was a pretty bold experiment,” Verneris said. “It could have made it so the bones were not so hospitable for the bone marrow cells to go back into.”

The idea of TMI was that the bones would sustain 100 percent of the radiation while his other organs could be spared.

“Erik really was a guinea pig,” Verneris said. “We possibly could have destroyed his ability to make blood cells ever again.”

Erik then underwent another seven rounds of chemo.

And the cancer was cleared from his body yet again.

A third battle

But the celebration was short-lived.

During a one-year follow-up in November 2006, the tests revealed tumor re-growth.

A third bone marrow transplant was not recommended due to increased risk for toxic death.

Erik said the first transplant was risky and the second one riskier, a “huge decision,” and is not now contemplating a third.

He faced again the regiment he now knows so well: more chemo.

Again, his body responded and the cancer began to shrink.

“I must have a rare form of neuroblastoma, one with fast-growing cells,” he said. “My (neuroblastoma) responds well to chemo, which targets fast-growing cells.”

But, then he made a jaw-dropping decision: No more. He told his doctor that he was done with treatment.

“I was going through the worst period of my life in 2006,” he said. “The cancer. A divorce. I was really super depressed.”

He connected with a group of people that believed in a healing ministry, that if one prayed hard enough and believed, he would be healed.

Erik, a devout Christian, said he bought into the healing ministry and was losing faith in the ability of medicine to save him.

For four months he did nothing.

“I said, ‘OK, I’m going to jump off this cliff,’” he said.

But, the pain, and the cancer, returned.

So, he underwent six more rounds of chemotherapy.

Amazingly, the cancer subsided yet again.

“That is not supposed to happen,” said Verneris, the U of M doctor.

Once neuroblastoma returns, Verneris said, he tells patients to get their affairs in order. Those who suffer from a re-occurrence typically die within 6 months, maybe one year.

But Erik not only beat the cancer a second time, but he is winning an unprecedented third battle.

“That is completely unheard of,” Verneris said. “I would love to think that something we did (through TMI) made the bone marrow a less nice place for cancer cells to live.”

Living in today

Erik has experienced two earlier periods of No Evidence of Disease, or NED in cancer speak. But both remissions were followed by relapses.

“We’re not going there for a very long time,” he said, smiling.

Instead, he’s focusing on his current goal: a Bemidji State University diploma.

“After my second relapse, I didn’t even try to make plans,” he said. “Now that I’m here, I’m just looking at the short-term. I want to do really well in college – and I want to graduate this time.

“I’ll think about careers soon. But, right now, I’m just glad to be living a semi normal life.”

He now is on a steady dose of low chemo and lots of drugs. He will be on the regiment indefinitely.

“Until we find a miracle drug or it goes away on its own, which does happen,” he said.

His experiences have resulted in some hearing loss, damage to a kidney, and Erik says he has “chemo brain” from which he has some short-term memory problems.

But, it hasn’t impacted his day-to-day life. He pointed out that he has, to date, taken nine tests at BSU this year and has earned all A’s, except for one.

“I’m taking a lot of pills, but other than that, it doesn’t impede my college experience,” he said. “I feel normal.”

Erik has spent much of his time volunteering and attending camps for kids suffering from cancer.

Erik is unique in that, as an adult, he can talk to adults and answer their questions about what their children will experience, about what the chemo will taste like. Yet, he still is able to identify with the children who are sick, because he, too, is sick.

There have been “many, many times” when Erik has thought that his time might be up, but he has chosen to just keep living.

In Montana, at a camp for {young adults} living with cancer, Erik has connected with others living in the same predicament

“We all face death,” he said. “Everyone I’ve met accepts that as a possibility, but not to the point where you let it get you down.”

At his lowest points, he said, he turns to prayer.

“If I didn’t have my faith, I don’t think I’d ever be able to believe that I’m going to get better or continue to be strong,” he said. “When I get bad news, yeah, it’s really painful, but at the same time, I have comfort.”

Read Journal History

Hospital Information:

Fairview--University of Minnesota
500 Harvard Street SE
Minneapolis MN 55455

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E-mail Author: echoknight69@hotmail.com