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Patrick McSweeney, The Fighting Irishman

Welcome to Patrick's web page. Patrick was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia on July 21,2004. The following day he had his chemo port inserted and began chemotherapy. He was 5 at diagnosis. He was considered low risk and entered into COG 1991 protocol and randomized to arm 1D. His treatment protocol consists of 10 months of intense chemotherapy with repetition of the delayed intensification phase. Afterwards, he will enter long term maintenance for the remainder of the treament time. He is scheduled to begin LTM on June 1, 2005. His total treatment time will be 3 years and 2 months and will be completed in September of 2007.
He is a Fighting Irishman and even though he has had his share of complications such as a brain blood clot and pancreatitis, both side effects from his chemotherapy drugs, he continues to amaze us. Thank you for checking in on him.

Patrick completed his IV chemo on Sept. 11, 2007 and his oral chemo meds on Sept. 15. His chemo port was removed on October 25, 2007. We thank God for sending all of you to support Patrick and our family on this journey.

On April 22, 2010, Patrick had a bone marrow biopsy that confirmed his leukemia is back. He has relapsed. His new protocol is AALL 0433 (Intensive treatment for Intermediate-Risk relapse of Pre-B ALL) and consists of 106 treatment weeks of high-dose chemotherapy that will require frequent hospitalizations. Please pray for Patrick as he travels this very challenging journey.

He received his last IV Cytoxan on July, 30, 2012. His chemo port was removed on October 24, 2012.

On February 19th, 2013 he woke up at 3:30 AM complaining of rib and leg pain. He had walked 9 holes of golf the day before and played in the City Championship basketball game 3 days before. He went to the doctor where we discovered he had relapsed again. Once again, we need your prayers as he fights the beast for the third time. He will be having a Bone Marrow Transplant with a matched sibling donor. The third time will be the charm to beat cancer forever!(Maybe that is the reason 3 has always been his lucky number, and we never knew why!)
BMT on May 14, 2013.

Patrick relapsed again on 3/24/14. He is scheduled for targeted therapy (modified T-cell therapy) at CHOP. T-cells extracted April 8, 2014. CART-19 T-cells infused August 6, 2014. Now we wait and pray....

The CAR-T cells put him into remission but disappeared after a couple of months. He had a booster dose in 11/2014 that failed to take.

In preparation for the humanized form of the CAR T-cell study Patrick had a bone marow biopsy on 5/21/15 that showed the leukemia had returned. He was given the T-cells on 5/26/15. Now we wait and pray. Again.

Patrick achieved remission, but his T cells went away and his B cells returned. He required quarterly T cell booster transfusions in Philadelphia to keep the leukemia away. The last dose of this batch of CAR T cells was given on March 16,2016.

Patrick relapsed again on 9/8/16. He decided to have more T cells collected and altered. The CAR-T cells were infused on 11/15/16. A checkpoint inhibitor drug, Keytruda, was administered 2 weeks later to boost the T cells. The 1 month BMA on 12/15/16 showed that Patrick was in remission! We ask for prayers for sustained T-cell activity. Thank you.

Patrick relapsed in January 2018. He decided early on that he wanted to use his relapse story to help find a cure for childhood cancer. He made a video describing his 7 cancer battles over 13 & 1/2 years. He raised over 31,000 for childhood cancer research.

The medical plan is to use stored CAR-T cells to get Patrick back into remission. After that, he has decisions to make. We are asking prayers for God to provide wisdom and discernment for the next steps.

Second Bone Marrow Transplant scheduled for May,2018 from a matched,unrelated donor. Prayers requested for this to be his cure.

Journal

Wednesday, June 23, 2021 12:36 AM CDT

I’m so sorry for the lack of updates. There’s a whole variety of reasons. But I still apologize for being silent. This cancer world is hard to navigate. And as as I’ve mentioned before it is like the ocean. The waves really never subside. They might get a little quieter and spaced out for a while until they get churned up again. It’s exhausting.It wears a person down both physically, mentally and emotionally.

I really haven’t had the energy to update. And some days feel almost normal and then some days take us back to the thick of the treatment. Patrick’s side effects are a constant reminder of the war we’ve faced in the trenches.


I would really appreciate some prayers for some specific issues.

Patrick’s pulmonary function test results showed a decrease in lung function last month. He is scheduled to repeat them this Friday. 1) Please pray that his lung function has improved when he meets with Dr. Towe.

He’s also scheduled on Friday to see the ophthalmologist. 2) Please pray that there’s been no decrease in his ability to see due to the cataracts in both eyes.

Patrick had a local endocrinology appointment followed by a bone scan yesterday. 3) Please pray for the results but there’s no decrease in bone density.


4) That the echo on Friday shows no changes to his heart. The chemo hand other treatments he received over the years can cause heart damage.

5) he was recently contacted by his nephrologist Dr. Benoit , with some concerns after his 24 hour urine test. She was completely surprised by the results and the fact that he has not had debilitating stones. She started him on a new medicine and he will have a urine follow up on Friday.

6) Prayers requested that his three-year BMT follow up visit with Dr. Davies is uneventful and that his counts are good.

7)Prayers for both physical and mental perseverance. The reason for this request is pretty self-explanatory.

8) And prayers for so many of our friends who are thick in the battle. The waves are crashing over their heads. Please pray for them to stay afloat and feel buoyed and lifted up by the prayers, love and support of others.

Thank you for all of you who have supported us throughout the past almost 17 years and continue to pray for Patrick and our entire family.

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Links:

https://youtu.be/v_F7vLxdilE   St. Baldrick's Organization gives a shout out to the Fighting Irishman
http://www.wdrb.com/story/27322118/crawford-louisville-boy-fighting-cancer-to-start-for-bellarmine-against-louisville   Bellarmine vs UL game
http://www.wave3.com/story/27322684/teen-cancer-survivor-surprised-with-chance-to-play-in-bellarmine-louisville-game   Coach Davenport's Surprise


 
 

E-mail Author: dhmcsweeney13@gmail.com

 
 

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