Xander Rhys Lowry

Moon Face

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Moon Face is the term used to describe the full bloated features found on a child taking large doses of steroid medication to fight cancer. The steroids cause not only uncontrollable hunger, but also water retention that focuses in the head area. Xander has complained that his face is uncomfortable in this condition. In its most extreme state it even hurt to smile. If you know someone going through this please keep in mind that it is temporary. After going off the steroids it was over two months before the swelling decreased, but it did finally and we cheered.

Please follow this page all the way to the bottom, and don't just stop at the first scary photos.

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This picture was taken one week into Phase One. Xander had only been on steroid medications for that short time, and you can't see any result at this time. You can see is why all the nurses pointed out a resemblance to Macaulay Culkin the actor from the home alone movies. He has not regained this look chemo and age took that.

The next 6 photos show Xander on the first day of phase Two just 3 weeks after the photo above. His "Moon Face", or as Xander calls it "big head" has not reduced at all in these photos. This is the largest his head became and the most uncomfortable.

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This photo is from the same set, but also includes Xander's sisters. Nichole age 14 is on the left and Charissa almost 13 is on the right. Xander was embarased by his head size and really did not want to have the photos taken without his sisters there to support him.

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This next photo was taken three weeks after the last set. Xander has just come out of a 5 day hospital stay that included 2 red blood cell transfustions. His counts were still terrible, and he had another transfusion less then a week later. If you look closely his moon face has gone down slightly, but he has been off the prednisone for about 3 weeks. Much of his hair is gone at this point. Xander did not go bald on his chemo so far, just patchy.

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These photos were taken Dec. 5, nearly 2 months after the prednisone was stopped. His face has still not resumed its normal size. You can also see his hair loss better in his photo. At this point he has had 6 blood transfusions and had to be assisted in the half block walk into the photo studio.

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