HElPing XAViER

Andrew and Danii Pudovkin of Triton Plumbing & Gas have been members of ours since 2020, and they’ve been a pleasure to work with.

Their son Xavier was diagnosed with stage 4 high risk Neuroblastoma at the end of March 2021, when he was just 3.5 years old. Xavier’s mum, Danielle, tells us his story.

Xavier’s symptoms appeared abruptly one night. He came into our room with severe abdominal pain, and projectile vomited all over our bed.

We initially thought he had appendicitis, so we immediately called an ambulance.

By the time we reached the hospital Xavier seemed fine and happy. However, a few days later he had more pain, this time in his back.

We went back to numerous doctors who undertook blood and urine tests. We were told everything was fine and that he just had a virus.

The pain then moved to Xavier’s chest; he couldn’t even climb up on my bed. I called another ambulance, and we ended up at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.

That weekend was when our life changed forever, and we heard the word ‘neuroblastoma’.

Xavier had a solid tumour on his right adrenal gland. From this point we didn’t leave the hospital. Xavier went through 18 months of intense treatment which included chemotherapy, surgery, high dose chemo with stem cell treatment, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy.

Even though Xavier got really sick through treatment, we tried to keep his life as ‘normal’ as possible. Xavier loves swimming, but he couldn’t swim because he had his central line.

As soon as he had finished his 2nd high dose of chemotherapy, we got his central venous catheter removed and a port put in for the remainder of treatment.

This was one of the BEST decisions we made and fought for. In December 2021, he was swimming again.

With the approval of our oncologist and pharmacist, I supported Xavier’s body through treatment by seeing an integrative GP, and naturopath.

I feel so blessed that our oncologist let me do this.

The deal was we had to have an open relationship and I had to be honest, which I was.

My husband and I run a plumbing business which is our sole income. I ran our business from the hospital, catching vomit, cleaning up poop, or just snuggling