Praying For A Cure Seth Lowman, 9 Months, Fights Cancer With Surgery, Chemotherapy And Love

A month ago, little Seth Lowman loved to giggle and crawl on the grass outside his Coeur d’Alene home.

Then he started getting fussy, and his mom thought he might have an ear infection.

He did. But doctors also discovered a cancerous mass growing in the 9-monthold’s chest.

A few days later he underwent surgery to remove the tumor, but doctors found the cancer had spread to the infant’s bones and lungs.

Friends and co-workers have stepped up to raise money for Seth’s medical expenses.

“It was very shocking at first,” his mom, Keely Lowman, said. “Now we’ve just decided to deal with it day by day. If we have a good day, we’re really happy. If we have a bad day, we deal with it.”

Recently, the bad days have outnumbered the good.

A week after the surgery, Seth started chemotherapy. Days after finishing the first round of treatment, he went blind. The tumor had spread to a spot behind his eyes and was pressing on his optic nerve.

Doctors at Spokane’s Deaconess Medical Center tried a round of more aggressive chemotherapy and for the first time in weeks Seth got to go home. But now he’s back in the hospital after his blood counts plummeted dangerously low, leaving him vulnerable to infection.

Seth suffers from neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that grows from cells in the sympathetic nervous system. About 550 children are diagnosed with the disease in the United States each year.

The chances of curing neuroblastoma are very high if it’s caught early. But in most cases the cancer isn’t diagnosed until it already has spread.

“He was really laid back, but he was very happy and healthy,” his mom said Monday as she held him in his hospital room. “He was a little flirt, actually. He loved to flirt and play and giggle all the time.”

Seth’s illness has been tough on Keely, 24, and her husband, Kale, 26. Besides taking care of the infant, the Lowmans also have a 3-year-old daughter, Samantha.

“It’s trying and it’s frustrating, but I’m glad to be there when they need it,” said Venka Austrheim-Smith, a friend of the Lowmans who has helped take care of Samantha and has picked up visiting relatives from the airport. “It’s tough for all of us being so young, having this happen to a child.”

Another friend, Kristel Meredith, set up a fund for Seth at Washington Mutual Bank. Donations for the boy’s medical expenses can be made in his name at any area branch, Meredith said.

Meredith met Keely about two years ago at a group for new parents at St. Aloysius Church in Spokane.

“It made us want to go take our baby girl for a check-up just to make sure,” she said.

Kootenai Medical Center, where Keely works as an occupational therapist, will hold a bake sale for the family on Aug. 26 at the hospital, spokesman Mike Regan said. Her colleagues also are donating their paid leave days so she can spend more time at Deaconess.

About 80 percent of Seth’s medical expenses are covered by insurance through Kale’s employer, Micro Enhancement International. But the donations will help make up for the loss of Keely’s income while she spends so much time at the hospital.

Keely said she had no idea how much Seth’s medical treatment would cost. She’s just praying the next six to eight months of chemotherapy would cure her son.

“They’re just hoping this will work,” Keely said. “This is the aggressive chemotherapy. After this, it would be experimental things we would have to try.”