The Reedy Family

Jeremiah woke up from his nap on a Sunday afternoon and walked over to his mom to tell her, “I have a stomach ache.”

At first, Samantha, Jeremiah’s mom, thought, “he must be backed up.” She increased his juice intake and three days later, Jeremiah felt better. Soon after, his temperature spiked and Samantha and her husband, Eric, rushed Jeremiah to an urgent care. The nurses there encouraged them to visit the emergency department at their local hospital in Denver, PA.

Once at the emergency department, further testing was done including an X-ray and an MRI. Based on the results they thought it was a bowel obstruction and sent the Reedy family to Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey, PA for further examination.

When the Reedy family arrived at Penn State Health, they were greeted by their medical team who took Jeremiah into emergency surgery.

“Our medical team almost sent us home after his first surgery,” Samantha said. “They thought it could have been a gastrointestinal infection. The next day, the surgeon said that they wanted to go back in for exploratory surgery.”

This time, they found something – there was a mass.

“The surgeon told us there was a mass, but they were not worried that it was cancer,” Samantha said.

Two days later, the medical team concluded that Jeremiah has Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of soft tissue cancer.

After traveling over an hour to get to Hershey, the Reedy’s were left wondering how they were going to manage traveling every morning at 5:00 a.m. for Jeremiah’s chemo treatment.

“Jeremiah has been incredible throughout this entire process,” Samantha said. “He is just a 3-year-old fighting ‘bad guys.’”

As Jeremiah fought his bad guys at Penn State Children’s Hospital, his family stayed across the street at the Ronald McDonald House in Hershey.

“This isn’t just a place for us to stay,” Samantha said. “It is a place where we feel comfortable and our family can be together.”

On June 27th, Jeremiah started his 67 weeks of chemotherapy and 20 days of radiation. His treatment will hit the finish line in October of 2020.

To help keep families like the Reedy’s together, visit rmhc-centralpa.org today to make a donation or find out how you can get involved today.

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